Just a Game
by C.Peace
Summary: Second part of Safe & Sound. Life after the games has become a spiraling depression to Echo Ivy and know they have chosen new Elites. Once he accepts to train the new Elites, he finds out that they are made up of the past Elite's vengeful siblings. What will happen when he is thrown into a mock arena with them? And what does District 13 have to do with any of this?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"Ah...", I hear Persia spit out as she falls to ground. Caston yells out louder and runs off. Jareda's cannon fired and I run to Persia's side.

"Persia, no!" I felt like crying but I know that I shouldn't in front of her.

"Echo, don't leave me here alone, please.", she breathes out.

"No, I'm not gonna go anywhere!", I tell her.

"I'm not gonna make it, Echo.", she says.

"No, you're going to make it, you're gonna win this game. Be strong Persia! Please!"

"Sit me up against the tree, please", I do as she says, and I ask her why. "The sun is going down, and I wanted to see my last sunset." The hovercraft comes into view and picks up Jareda's body.

"It's not your last sunset! You're a fighter! Fight it, Persia, please! Fight!"

"Echo, I'm not stupid. I'm going down right now, just like the sun. Here take my pin. It's yours now.", she hands me her District token, a mockingjay pin, like my necklace. "Hey, Echo...Stop it. Smile. Come on smile, I want to see that thirteen year old I met in the arena, that one day.", she tells me and I try to smile, but I sort of get a mix of a laughing frown. "Come on before I go, I want to see a smile. Remember what we used to do when you were sad."

"Yes, I do.", I say and nod. I try to give her the smile she asked for, but it's still to hard.

"Yeah, you remember. I use to tickle you!", she pokes my stomach and she's laughing. I try to hold back my laughter but it gets out. "Can you sing to me...my favorite song. Remember the first one you sang when we met...the hanging tree." I couldn't hold my tears in anymore, I was smiling but I was also crying. "Come on...cheer up. I'm going somewhere better than this place.", she wipes tears off my face. "Sing, Echo. You always were the best..."

I begin the song and I watch her slowly fade away. I shake her as I sing the song to keep her awake.

"_Are you, are you_

_Coming to the tree_

_Where they strung up a man they say murdered three._

_Strange things did happen here_

_No stranger would it be_

_If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree._

_Are you, are you_

_Coming to the tree_

_Where the dead man called out for his love to flee._

_Strange things did happen here_

_No stranger would it be_

_If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree._

_Are you, are you_

_Coming to the tree_

_Where I told you to run so we'd both be free._

_Strange things did happen here_

_No stranger would it be_

_If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree._

_Are you, are you_

_Coming to the tree_

_Wear a necklace of rope, side by side with me._

_Strange things did happen here_

_No stranger would it be_

_If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree."_

"Persia! Persia! Persia, don't go! Please! Don't leave me here alone!" I scream out and realize it was just a dream. I get up from the bed and take a shower. The new house has a better shower than my old house, because the water actually runs in the house. I walk downstairs and notice that I'm alone. Without Brazilia the house is always quite. Ever since she died of a deadly sickness, my parents avoid the new house. They always stay late at work. My dad cuts down trees, and my mom got a job teaching singing in the school.

I sit downstairs on the couch and I turn on the television. It's on a Capital channel where they are talking about the arrangements they are making for me when I arrive there for next months victory tour. They are building a stage in the City Circle where I will have my talent show, and my interview with Ceaser Flickerman. It's been so long since I've been in the Capital fighting for my life against my best friends. I still have nightmares every night, but living in Victor's Village, people are used to hearing people screaming in the middle of the night. I got used to it as soon as I met some of the tortured souls.

My brother, Arslo, avoids me now. When I came home, he called me a killer, and that he never wanted to ever see me. Leo never sticks around long enough to ever talk to him. He either goes to Arslo and his new wife's home, or school. Every time I see him, he quickly runs up to his room, completely wordless. Before the games, he would always be quiet, but now the silence has a certain atmosphere of fear surrounding it. Everyone sees me as a dangerous muttation. When I walk down the street people always move out of the way, even some of the past victors are scared of me. I don't see why though, I won the Hunger Games just like they did, I'm no different then them. I'm a month away from the victory tour, where I will go see the faces of all those District Tribute's families.

I'm always alone. Always. My friends never look at me the same way again. The only person I still talk to is Clair, and my neighbor, Tessa. She's a daughter of Akiliya. Other than them, my parents are in and out within minutes, I only talk to them when they decide to talk to me. The death of Brazilia traumatized them. It was sad because that day in the Justice building was the last time I saw her. She caught the disease while I was still in the arena, and died the day I returned. They tried everything to keep her healthy so when I got here we could get her the treatment she needed, but it didn't work.

I decide to take a walk and see what goes on in my home of District 7. I walk out of the gates of my new home in Victor's Village, and I pass by one of the most disturbed winner's, Adesa, home all the time. We talk from time to time when she doesn't freeze and has one of her episodes. I can always hear her screaming from her house, I ignore it because I know that everyone who lives in these houses is disturbed, and I don't complain because I do the same.

I walk to the Justice building and see groups of people outside talking and children having fun with their wooden toys. I walk all the way to the place where I used to live. The place is still as poor and broken as the day I left it. I see the eyes of people watch me when I pass by. I go up to the door of my old home, and open the door. It creaks so loudly, but I don't care. I've come for something else. I walk over to the small cramp closet that was my room. I open the drawer, and pull out the picture of all the Elites and I. Right next to it is a picture of Sestra and I two years ago. I keep her wooden ball here, right next to her picture. I always come here when I have a rough night, it keeps me relaxed, I can always nap here and when I wake up, feel like everything was the way it was before. Back when Venice and Joel were still alive. Back when Sestra would come knocking on the door to ask if I can go out and teach her something new. Back when I'd go to the Elite Training Grounds once a month and train while seeing my best friends still alive.

I wake up and I have the two picture in my hands, we all look so happy. I stare at the pictures and see all the smiling faces. I couldn't help but break down. I start crying, and I hear a commotion from outside. I put the robe that I've left in the house over myself, pull the hood over my head, and I walk outside to see what was going on. I ask my old neighbor, Crestria, what was going on. "The new Elites have been chosen!" she says.

"New Elites? What about the old ones?" I ask.

"Well, since most of that group is dead, and only three remain, they have been decommisioned and released of their duties. These two will be taking there spots as the new District 7 Elites, and they are going to their first training.", she answers me.

I see two children going in the direction the Justice building to be picked up. I see that the boy is tall and well built, looks like he could survive the games when they eventually chose to put all the Elites to be in the games again. The girl looks like a shy mess, her black hair covers one of her eyes, and the revealed one looks around anxiously.

They pass by me and I know that they saw me, they also know who I am. The boy gives a surprised facial expression when he looks at me and then turns his head to the front quickly. The girl doesn't keep her eyes off me until they finally get a distance away from me. The boy looks like he's around my age, and the girl looks a bit younger. I follow them to the Justice Building, and I see the train in the station here to take them to the training grounds in the Capital. I go up to the train's window and I look through secretly. I see that some of the seats are filled, I'm guessing that the new Elite's from Districts 1-6 are the ones I see sitting down. _This is the new generation replacing Persia, me, and the rest. Those poor things look like they wouldn't survive the Free-for-Alls._

I walk away and I know that the new Elites for sure got a glimpse of me. I walk back to my home in Victor's Village, and Tessa is outside, watering her flowers. Tessa is about my age, and we always talk. Her blonde dyed hair seems like it's straight from the Capital. Which could be true. Us winners get special treatment, we are the best of a bad situation.

"Hi, Echo! I haven't seen you out in a while." she asks me pouring water over her roses.

"Hi, Tessa, yeah I know I just decided to go do something today. I think I was able to get some of the dust that was collecting on me off.", I say with a smile which is something I rarely do anymore.

She giggles and I walk back inside. I take off the robe and I see that someoene is in the kitchen. I break a glass bottle that I must of left out, and threaten to stab them. "I'm not here to hurt you, I'm are just here to talk to you about your Elite status.", the man says.

"Go on...", I put down the bottle and walk past him to the kitchen.

"Well, you're the best Elite in all of Panem-" he says and I cut him off.

"I'm not the best Elite in Panem..."

"Well whatever you want to call it, you are one of the last remaining Elites in Panem, and you won the Hunger Games, so I'm here to ask you if you would want to come and train the new Elites in their first training?"

I think about it for a while, and answer, "No..."

"Hear me out!" he says getting up.

I throw a knife that passes by him and drives into the wall. "I said...no...I never want to see that place ever again!"

"Okay," he says still stunned staring at the knife and how far dug into the wall it was, "I respect your decision.", and he rushes out of the house. I walk over to the knife in the wall, and pull it out. I wash it and place it back in the drawer I got it from.

"I have had enough with the Elites for one day..." I whisper to myself.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Later on that day, my mother comes home earlier than usual. "Hi, Mom.", I say quietly because she might be really tired.

"Hello, Echo.", she says and she's obviously drunk. My mother was never much of a drinker, but tragedy does that to a person.

"Do you want anything to drink or eat?"

"Yes, some coffee and some...some...", she says and she finally just passes out. Coffee sounds good, so I make it anyways, and I have some left over. I put it in another kettle and go to Akiliya's house. I knock on the door, and wait for someone to open up. Tessa comes to the door and lets me in.

"My mom isn't here right now, she's in the Justice Building for the planning of the Victory Tour.", Tessa tells me.

"I'll just talk to you then. I brought some left over coffee."

"Oh thank you, let me take that to the kitchen just sit down in the living room.", I do as she tells me, and I sit down. When she comes back in with two cups filled with it we both start to drink and talk. "So how have you been, we haven't really talk in a long time before this morning.", she asks.

"I'm sorry about that, but you know being branded a serial killer isn't a title you want to walk around in public with. I'm not doing my best, I'm still having my night terrors.", I tell her, because she knows to deal with the scream and shouts of her mother.

"It's okay, you'll eventually get over them. My mom says that it always gets better with time. You just have to do something to get your mind off of it during the day.", she gets up and sits closer to me.

"I know, but it's hard to forgot all your friends and someone who was your sister.", I say and I look at the picture of Sestra I have. I look at Tessa and she has the look of sympathy in her eyes. The room's mood changes, and we're both in this world alone with each other. There is no place else but here with Tessa. I start to get closer, and so does she. Once we're in close our slow reach becomes a full contact kiss. We keep the kiss going until we hear the door open a little. I stop and Tessa gets up quickly to greet her mother.

"Hello, Echo, what are you doing here?", Akiliya asks as she closes the door.

"I brought over some left over coffee, and I wanted some company.", I get up to give her a hug.

"Well, you can come over any time you want. What type of coffee is it?"

"It's vanilla, my dad picked it up at the City Plaza. Akiliya, I wanted to ask you something about the Victory Tour!"

"Yes, anything.", she serves herself and comes into the living room to sit down next to Tessa.

"Well, I wanted to know about the procedure. Should I get ready for anything?", I sit back down.

"Just your talent, and the interview with Caesar. Speaking about your talent what are you going to do? Are you going to sing?"

"Yes, I was planning on it."

"Well, the Capital sent this over. It's lyrics to the song they want you to sing.", she says and she hands me the paper marked with the Capital seal.

"What is this?"

"It's the Panem Anthem."

"What!", I say surprised that the Capital had the audacity to even think about making me sing the song for this hell we call a country.

"Yes, Echo, they want you to sing the anthem."

"I don't want too!"

"I'm sorry, Echo, but I don't make that decision."

"How dare they! After they forced me to kill my best friends and my sister, they want to slap me in the face and say that they want me to sing their theme! I'm going to sing whatever the hell I want to sing.", my chest starts to get heavy, and I feel so angry.

"Echo, they have a lot of power, you defy them they can get rid of you faster than they got rid of District 13!"

"That's their problem. District 13 had the upper hand on them with their nuclear weapons, and when the Capital got scared they decided to blow all those innocent people sky high, just like they did to Sestra!"

"Echo, back when I was a brand new winner, the girl that one the first year I mentored was a singer. She disobeyed them by singing a different song other than the anthem, and she was in some deep shit. President Snow put that poor girl from District 9 on the market for any Capital pervert who wanted her. You know what he told her if she didn't play along with getting sold?", Akiliya says and I stay quite. "He told her that he would kill someone she loved if she didn't play ball. I don't want that happening to you. And don't question it happening to you, because it will! Okay?"

I nod and say, "I'll sing it, but I won't like it!"

"Nobody ever said you had too."

A month goes by quicker than I would've expected and it's time to get ready for the Victory Tour. The door bell rings, and I open it to find my prep team rushing in and measuring me with a couple of hellos.

"Well, we're just going to prep you here, so when you get on to the train to leave for District 12, you'll already look fabulous!", Harmonio squecks. They start to work on my face by plucking my eyebrows to make them thinner. Then comes creams to rid my face of any blemishes. While that dries, they go through a portable closet and chose my outfit for my appearence in District 12.

After hours of prepping we are ready to go to the train station and be on our way. A car comes to the front of the house, and I can see the rest of the victors looking through their windows, and some coming outside to see the car take me away.

We get to the train station, and there awaits hoards of Journalists from the Capital, taking pictures and asking questions. I meet Seran and Akiliya at the door of the train, and I step on the platform in front of the door, just like the day of the reaping. This time I don't see my family, or even of my friends. I see people around but barely any familiar faces. I walk in and the train starts to move. This time I don't have to look outside to see the faces of the people I love. Why look for something that isn't there? In my room, I take a shower and lay down on the bed. I hear someone knock on the door, and I open it to find Tessa standing in front of me.

"Hey, Echo!" she says cheerfully, "Can I come in?"

"Go ahead...", I say as she walks in.

"So...this is how it feels like to be on your way somewhere away from home." She says flipping her light blonde hair. She sits down on the bed and lays down on my lap

"Why are you here?", I ask her while I get up, and walk to the window.

"Well, my mom was coming so I decided to ask if I can come to see you do your job here." She puts her arm around me, and I ignore it. I knew she liked me, since I was practically the only boy who talked to her that was her age. After our first kiss at her house, I've been wondering if Tessa might be the one to help me forget all my problems

"I think that we should go eat." I take her arm off of me and I walk to the door. She follows behind me, like a kitten chasing a string. I know that it was about time that I find someone to love, but after what had happened to me in the arena, I can't afford to let anyone get to close to me. I walk into the dining room and just like the first time on the train, Seran is on the velvet couch doing her make up while Akiliya eats. I stack my plate and eat while Tessa does the same.

I have a flashback to my first time here. The whole room goes white, and I'm at the door again, Sestra is in here talking with Akiliya, and Seran is still on the couch doing her make up. "Sestra?", I say and i walk over to her.

"What's wrong, Echo?", she gets up and I hug her. I realize I'm crying and everyone in the room looks at me strangely. "Echo, what's wrong?"

"Sestra, you're still alive! Sestra, I've missed you so much. Please we have to get off the train! We can't go into the arena, again, you're going to die!", I tell her while trying to keep myself from being heard by the Peacekeepers in the room.

"Again? Echo I haven't been in there once! Echo...Echo...Echo!", the room starts to melt away, and then the bright light comes back. The room is back to normal, and I see Akilya shaking me, telling me to wake up. It was just a dream.

"We are pulling up on District 12. You might want to get dressed for the ceremony.", Seran hurries me. Even after the prep team got me ready, I took off the clothes due to the fact that dressing that way is very uncomfortable for me. I get dressed and I walk in through the back of the Justice Building and to the front where everyone in District 12 is. I see banners hanging from the side of their justice building. I look at them and realize what's on them. The one on the left holds the face of Jenten Mao, and the one right has Juno Badge on it. They were tributes, and my friends, that died in the arena. The Mayor reads his speech and gives me a medal. My turn to come out in front of them all comes and people remain quite. I look down to see the families of my friends. Jenten's side is his father, mother, and his brother. I look over to Juno's side and there's no one.

"Now a few words from our champion!", the Mayor says.

"Hello, District 12.", I say and the quite becomes deafening, "I'm Echo, and I'm wanted to say a few words about my friends from this district. Jenten and Juno.", I look down to Jenten's family and start, "Jenten was an amazing person when we got him to talk. He was really funny, there was never a dull moment with him around. I didn't really see him in the arena, but I know that he would've wanted me to tell his family that he loved them.", I can see that his mother is crying and his father is consoling her.

I continue by talking about Juno, "Juno was also a wonderful. She taught me to see things from other people's perspectives, and to recognize the significance of the smaller things in life. She was my friend, and even though she tried to kill me, I know that she did it to come home to her family.", I hear a low murmur start in the crowd, some people nod their heads disapprovingly, and it kills me to see that no one was in her families spot, so I ask, "Where is her mother?", I knew that she only lived with her mother, so I wouldn't ask about the rest of her family.

Someone in the crowd answers, "She died during child birth!". Silence falls over the crowd, and I stand in front of the crowd dumb-founded. The mayor cuts in and says, "Well, our champion has a schedule to stick to so all of you are free to go home."

The Peacekeepers drag Akiliya, Seran, Tessa, and I off of the stage and into the Justice Building. I look back and I can see that the people are leaving, and I see a boy standing still in the ever moving crowd, staring at me with anger. Intense, burning anger.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

His face leaves an imprint on my memory. The anger scares me, and I think he was the one who yelled out the information about Juno's mother passing to me. _Why is he so angry?_ We eat the delicious spread they have left for us in the District 12 Justice Building's dining room. There we eat with the Mayor's family, Haymitch Abernathy, one of two past winners of District 12, and Marisanda Fletcher, the other winner. She seems very sick at the time, and I know that she was the first winner of District 12 who won about 12 years ago. Haymitch won 5 years ago at the second Quarter Quell. The Quarter Quell is a hunger game that comes with a twist. For example, Haymitch won a the Quater Quell where they doubled the number of tributes from each district. When they did the first Quater Quell they chose one district to sacrifice 24 tribute. I'm so glad that I'm 20 years away from the next Quarter Quell and I'm safe from going back into another arena.

Juno and Jenten must've been mentored by Haymitch since he is the most recent victor from this district. They must've learned from Marisanda she is one of the oldest tributes here. So either way they both knew my friends. I don't know why, but even though he's to young to be drinking, Haymitch seems kind of drunk.

That night we are taken back to the train and I go straight to bed to sleep. I dream of Juno and Jenten. Juno had a cruel face. Not that she was ugly, just that she looked very synical. She was really pretty when she tried, but she was pretty anyways. Jenten was very skinny, but very strong. I've seen him toss hundred-pound weights around like nothing. Both of them believed in honesty, and being themselves and not having to impress anyone. I guess it's because the people of District 12 were like that. I wake up and we are in District 11, home of Jason and Artimis. The ceremony doesn't start for another couple of hours, though. We are snuck in to the Justice building. After an hour I get bored and decide to take a tour. Thanks to Tessa, I use make up to change my appearence so I'm unrecognizable.

I sneak out the building, and I take a tour. I stole a candle from their justice building on my way out. I ask someone who obviously didn't recognize me, where Jason and Artimis' home is, and I'm led to a neighborhood as broken as my old one. I find an empty house and see that the door is open. I sneak in and find that there are pictures of the two in a room. I crouch down next to it, and light the candle. I sneak back out, and I'm soon done with a ceremony and back on the train in no time. Soon enough I'm passed so many Districts and I'm at 4.

I'm handed the microphone and start to talk about Caston and Jareda. "Caston was the best person when it came to weaponry, and so was Jareda. I knew them both at their best and worst. I knew them when they were together, and happy. They both taught me how to swim, which I'm grateful for.", I see that two pair of eyes are staring at me intensly at me. One from each family of the tributes. "Even though they pulled a nasty, evil, trick on me in the arena, I still love them. They were my friends."

I look down at their families and I see a girl with oddly colored hair on Caston's side. Two boys, and Jareda's Parents on her side. One of the boys is about 4 years old. Jareda's brother of course. His eyes stand out a lot among the group. He has sea green eyes that match the water I saw when I passed by the beach in the train. The only feature he has in common with Jareda is the bronze-like hair.

The same routine occurs, I'm walked back into the Justice building, eat, and back on the train. I do this and the same happens in District 3, eyes filled with anger, staring. The same happened in most of the other Districts. I on the train and I fear the place I'm going to next, District 2.

"Knock, knock!", Tessa says as she lets herself into my room. "How you holding up?"

"I just saw the faces of the families of the people I killed, and I'm about to meet the families of the people who died when I was trying to protect them. What do you think?" I tell her.

"I'm sorry that you have to do this, but I know that with time everything gets healed." she says as she reaches over, pulls me in and hugs me. Tessa looks me in the eyes and kisses me. I don't feel anyway phased by this, I'm to busy thinking about the people I'm about to meet. Carmenella, Excalibar's fiancee, and Morson, Persia's boyfriend. She kisses me again, and this time I kiss back. This kiss feels real, but I don't feel in love with Tessa. The train stops and I step out of the room with Tessa following me. The train needs to be fixed somewhere, I don't know, but I go back to my room and Tessa still follows.

"Tessa, what do you see in me?", I ask as I sit on my bed.

"I see a good looking boy, who is killing himself over something that has gone and passed, when he should be moving on and meeting new people.", she says, walking over, sitting besides me, and holding my hand. "You really don't deserve to live with these nightmares."

"I do," I say looking away from her, "I killed my friends. I watched them die and stood by and did nothing!", I hear the train moving and I know we're closer to District 2.

We are walked into the Justice building, and we are escorted to a room with the television. We all sit and watch, and a news flash comes on. It starts to say, "Keep an eye out for the following people, they have gone missing and are said to be armed and dangerous. They were last seen, leaving the Districts of 7 and 11. Quin Kingsly from District 11, and Clair Orchid of District 7." I know both of them, they are the last remaining Elites besides me.

They soon call us out and we are rushed out of the room with the television, and we are taken to the District 2 Justice Building stage in the square. District 2 is one of the pampered districts. They aren't as rich as the Captital, but they aren't as poor as the rest of us. Most of the people here look unsatisfied with what defeated their tributes. Districts 1, 2, and 4 are the places with most winners so they aren't use to sitting during one of these things without cheering out the names of one of their own tributes.

Most of them glance at me bitterly, and look away. Except for two faces seated in the sides of the tributes families. A young girl sits on Excalibar's side, she looks about a year younger than me and I instantly know that this is Carmenella. A boy on Persia's side, Morson presumably, also looks. He looks the same age as Persia, same height also. I could imagine Persia being in love with this boy, they look perfect for each other.

The microphone is handed to me and I start to speak. "Hello, District 2. My best friends were from here...", everyone looks at me like I don't matter. I breathe in deeply and continue, "Let me start over...Hello District 2...the district of completely useless people. I know you snobs aren't used to sitting in these, without your own tribute as winner, but you are all going to stay quiet and listen to me. To add insult to injury, you all have to cheer and celebrate after everything I say, even though I won, and your friends and family didn't. You probably don't give a damn about the people sacrificed to play your games for you. To most of you they dishonored your District by losing.", I couldn't believe I was saying this, and neither could the crowd, but I continue, "Those people you sent in were my friends, and friends to all of you, and to some their lovers. I tried to protect them in the arena, and somehow I ended up in front of all of you today. You should know that Persia, and Excalibar were my closest friends and now they are gone. I don't know why, but they are!", I realize I'm crying now, " Persia was the best person in all of Panem, and Excalibar was my hero. I loved them with all my heart. Before she died, Persia gave me this!", I pull out the pin and show it off. "This represents the friendship I had with Persia, the goodness in the world! District 2, you disgust me for even treating me like this, without even realizing that I was trying to protect your friends, your lovers, and you family!", I drop the microphone, spit on the stage, and walk off of it back into the Justice Building.

I'm about to walk into the doors, and I hear clapping. I turn around and see that someone is clapping. It's Morson. Soon enough Carmenella joins him, and then people start to stand and clap. They were all around Persia and Excalibar's age. I'm guessing these were all their friends. Some people look around confused and trying to shut them up, but they only get louder!

I hear some shout out the first verse of my song, The Hanging Tree" and then everyone who's clapping starts singing along. I bow and walk off with tears filling my eyes. I'm in the Justice building, and I start laughing uncontrolablly. I might've just started a rebellion in every District that was watching, but I know that District 2 had the biggest reaction.

We later get to District 1, only this time they don't let me speak. We are sent off as soon as I get my medal for winning, and we are off to the Capital, and then back home to celebrate.

I have defeated the Capital.

At the Capital, I'm bombarded with questions, before I even get to talk to Ceaser Flickerman.

I'm escourted to a new section of the building to me. It's for the winners to stay in when they arrive here. The room I stay in is a lot bigger and there is a lot more features. I tour the apartment that we are staying in and it is a lot more bigger than the one we stayed in when we arrived here for the games. I take the room and reflect on my whole journey through the districts. Also those eyes that stared at me with such intense anger. I saw some of their faces and some of them were related to the tributes. Their faces are all locked in a memory vault. Now I have to rehearse my singing for my presentation to the capital. All the winners have to show off a talent, and I chose my only talent, singing. The song they are making me is the Panem Anthem.

I get two days before I'm thrown in front of the crowd, and I spend an hour or so singing, but when I get bored I chose to walk around the building. I walk to the elevator, and press the button 2, which will send me to the floor where Persia and Excalibar stayed in the week before they died. The room is empty, but it doesn't mean it's unoccupied. I see that there are plates on the table and they filled with food. I walk to the rooms and I see there marked with boy and girl. I walk into the boy's room. I can see a bag filled with clothes. I examine the room and think, _So this is where Excalibar spent his final moments_. I walk out and avoid Persia's old room, because I wouldn't be able to take it, I would cry, and I need to get out before the occupants get back.

I'm back in the elevator, and I press the button that sends me to the training grounds. It's empty. The weapons are all up on the rack, but there isn't a soul in sight. I walk to each station and just have flashbacks of all my friends being here, and training. Crimson and Richest in the sword fighting station, and both trying to kill each other.(not really) The knife throwing station where Excalibar and Caitlyn excelled in. Derma running the track station along with Nathine. Jareda and Caston laughing and painting each other. I start to feel chocked up and I can feel tears about to flood from my eyes. I fall to my knees, and start to yell in pain. I just let out all my anger in these screams of painful memories.

I hear one of the elevator doors ring, and I climb up one of the pillars and I'm at the top of the roof watching. I see three people come in and I recognize all three of them. Petra, our assistant Elite trainer, and the two new Elites from District 7. "This is where you will be trained. The dining room is that way, the bathroom, is over there, and these are all the stations. Now hurry to the dining room while I bring the rest of the district Elites in!", Petra tells them as they walk off to the cafeteria. I get down as soon as they are out of sight. I run to the knife throwing station and grab a souvenier. A blade small enough to fit in my pocket, and then I run off to the elevator. I press the button that says 20 and I'm off to my room.

When I get back, I find that Tessa is sitting at the table enjoying her meal, but I pass by her and straight to my room so I could hide my gift. I walk back to the room and I see Akiliya is talking to someone, and this someone is Petra. "Echo, I heard you were here, but now I have to believe it!", she cheers and gives me the biggest hug.

"Nice to see you to, Petra!", I return the hug, "Where's Psy?", Psy was the head Elite Trainer.

"Oh, you didn't hear?", she lowers her volume.

"No. What happened?"

"Well, he was turned into an Avox for treason.", she pulls me aside from the rest of the group and tells me. An Avox is sort of a slave caught for doing a crime that was extremely bad. They are taken to the Capital, where they have their tongue cut off, turned into slaves for the tributes, and they are made to do jobs that no one in the Capital would dare to do.

"When did this happen?"

"Well it was about a couple of weeks before the reaping where they sent in all of you guys. Now I've been appointed head of the Elite force trainer. Speaking about the Elites, I have to go train the new ones, it was nice to see you, bye."

"Thank you for the info, and yes it was nice to see you too, Petra. Bye.", I say and she rushes into the elevator. I wonder why they turned Psy Prows into an Avox. He was never a traitor. I couldn't even think of anything that would even make anyone consider him a traitor to the Capital. I push it to the back of my mind when Akiliya tells me that my new stylist will be coming up today so we can meet. I still miss Tigris. We haven't seen each other since the Sponser's Banquet a week after I won. I turns out she paid completely for the lightning rod.

The elevator door opens and in walks in a Capital person, with their head held up high. This man had his hair raised up and it looked like a peacock tail on his head. The colors it suggested gave it away. He wore a black jumpsuit, his arms were exposed and it showed golden and purple tattoos all over. He commands me to sit down, and I would've told him something, but Akiliya warned me not to, so I did as told. "This...is...not good! You are going to have to be preped all day tomorrow if you want me to make something out of you. Come here you three!", he commands with his deep Capital accent. The three women that came in from behind him when he first arrived(which I didn't notice) walk up to me and start to examine me. "This will be your prep team for the next two days.", he tells me and then commands them, "You three start prepping him, and I shall start on what he will be wearing tomorrow!", he gets up and leaves. They escort me to my room without saying anything. When they started to strip me of the clothing, and started plucking, peeling, and redoing, I tried to make conversation but they would not speak.

They all looked like miniture versions of Posiden, which was my head stylist's name. They all had some of their hair up, just like his and their tattoos are sort of the same style as his but they were in different colors. As soon as I was done being prepped they all left quickly, and now all I have to do is go to sleep and wait for tomorrow.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Where am I?", I say loudly. I'm standing on a platform, like the ones in the Arena. I look around and I see that the other platforms are filled with the rest of the Elites. "No, this isn't happening again!", I yell out as an explosion rings out. "Sestra!", I yell out seeing the same image I saw that day when she exploded. I see Persia running towards the Cornucopia, just like Excalibar, and Kessie and everyone else. I stay completely still. I see Persia, until Caston is running up to her with a spear in his hand. I close my eyes and when I open them, I'm sitting next to Persia and she's asking me to sing to her, and I am. Her eyes are closed and she's dead. I close my eyes, and I open them. I see Exalibar on the floor with a sword in his chest, and I close my eyes again, and I relive the spear landing in him. I relive all the horrors I lived in those days in the arena.

I finally wake up screaming. This time I expect to see Akiliya or my parents or maybe even Arslo to come in through the door and tell me everything is fine. But it isn't. And they don't. I get up and take a shower. I get dressed and this afternoon I have to get ready to sing the Capital Anthem. I walk to the dining hall which is empty and I eat a small meal. When I'm done I walk to the elevator and go to the top floor. I find a ledge and sit. The sun has already risen, so I missed out on getting this intense feeling of loving memories. I'm sitting, and I hear a noise from the greenhouse, it was a falling pot.

_Deja vu_, I think to myself, "Is anyone there!", I yell out. Nothing. I turn back to the ledge and I hear a purr. It was a cat and it had big, brown eyes just like Derma. It even had light brown fur like Derma's hair. I call it over and it obliges. I pick it up, and walk over to the ledge to sit. The cat gets scared and it gets closer to me. "It's okay, the forcefields are to powerful to let us fall, we'll just bounce right back up here.", it calms it a little. "What are you doing up here little fella?", I ask and it meows as a response. "You know you remind me a lot of one of my old friends, Derma. I think you would of liked her, you two look a lot a like.", I begin to talk to it and it purrs and meows. "Look at me I'm talking to a cat. You know what? You've earned yourself a name, how about Veronica!", it licks it's paws, and I take it as a yes. "Well, I wish you the best of luck Veronica, but I have to go!", I realize it's almost time for me to get ready.

I rush downstairs and I meet Posiden at the elevator. He gives me the suit and I'm sent on my way.

Later on, I wait backstage where I will preform and I think about all that I've gone through to get here to this spot in the Capital. I should be defending the Hunger Games Winner with all my friends, not be the winner and have no friends. I can hear Caesar cheer out, "Give a round of applause for our Champion, Echo Ivy, who shall be singing the Panem Anthem!", the curtains pull apart and I walk onto the spotlight and I begin to sing the anthem. Halfway throught the first verse, I look at the faces in the crowd, and I see the faces of the Elites. I feel disappointed in myself and I stop. People look around confused. The illusion of seeing my friends with their faces filled with disapproval out in the audience shook me. I think of Juno, and a song that she taught me from District 12..

"Deep in the meadow, under the willow  
A bed of grass, a soft green pillow  
Lay down your head, and close your eyes  
And when they open, the sun will rise

Here it's safe, and here it's warm  
Here the daisies guard you from every harm  
Here your dreams are sweet–  
–and tomorrow brings them true  
Here is the place where I love you.

Deep in the meadow, hidden far away  
A cloak of leaves, a moonbeam ray  
Forget your woes and let your troubles lay  
And when again it's morning, they'll wash away

Here it's safe, and here it's warm  
Here the daisies guard you from every harm  
Here your dreams are sweet–  
– and tomorrow brings them true  
Here is the place where I love you.

Here is the place where I love you."

I don't hear applause for awhile and I close my eyes to escape the boos of the crowd before they even come. I've disappointed Akiliya for sure. What if President snow decides to do to me what he did to that poor girl from District 9. I keep them closed tight and then I hear one person clapping and then another, then whistling, my name being hollered, and finally the whole audience is going ballistic. I walk over to the chair where I shall sit and be interviewed. On my way I wave to the crowd, blow kisses here and there, until I plop down on the chair that looks like it belongs to a king.

"Now. Let's begin!", Ceaser Flickerman states.

"Echo, that was quite a performance you gave us just now.", he tells me. This man is something different. He has a bright red tuxedo on. His eye make up is very dramatic, it's a really dark shade of purplish red. His hair is slicked back and is the same color as his apperal.

"Thank you, I did my best.", I answer his complement.

"You're welcome! Now tell us about life after winning."

"There's not much to tell, it's been easier. The money makes killing my friends a lot more easier to handle!", I say on accident. I didn't mean to back sass him, but the crowd laughs, and I just think that what I said was true yet these horrible people are laughing.

"Well, I'm glad it makes it easier for you. Anything else new!". I tell the whole country of Panem what has gone on in my life and after a while he tells me, "Well, we have a surprise for you! There has been some major collecting all over the Districts and in the memory of you and your friends here are the new Elites of Panem!". A curtain opens from the opposite of us, and revealed to me are all the faces I remember. The angry eyes have been tamed. All these kids are the ones who stared at me with so much intensity. "First of all we are going to talk to all of you, and my friend here Echo will help me interview you all. Now the Elites of District 1 come on down!", he says and they come while the crowd cheers. The boy is happy to be here, but the girl keeps his eyes on me. "Now what are you names?", the girl and boy answer and the boy is Ash and the girl is Nicolette War! This is Crimson's sister.

District 2 comes up and this one practically knocks the air out of me, I was so surprised. Morson and Carmenella. District 3 relatives of Nessa and Darwin. District 4, Jareda's brother, Antony, and Caston's best friend, Rosie. District 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, all relatives or really close friend to those tributes who were in the arena with me. District 11 were the ones that didn't know their tributes. When it came to District 12 it scared me. This was the boy who informed me on Junos' mother's death. It was Juno's brother! The girl was Jenten's girlfriend and wow! She stared daggers at me the whole time she was on the stage with me."You are all free to go on back, we still need some air time with Echo!", they leave to the seats that all the tributes sat in six months ago.

"Echo, you have grown up a lot since the games, and it's good to talk to you again!", he tells me.

"I have, and thank you Caesar it's good to talk to you two."

"That song? Where is it from? Where did you learn it?"

"The song is something Juno from District 12 taught me. She wasn't the best of singers but I was able to learn it, and share it with everyone here."

"That's amazing! Is there anything you would like to say anything to the people of District 12?"

I turn towards a camera and answer, "Thank you for raising such amazing people!"

"The things you said in District 2! You're really brave to do that. Those people could have torn you to pieces!", he says gasping right after, and the audience laughs.

"I don't care much about mean-spirited people. I was raised to believe that if you don't have anything nice to say, then don't say anything at all. Hi, District 2!", I wave.

"Those are some strong feelings you have!", he says, and the audience laughs even more.

"Yes, did you know that District 2 has a law that consists of killing Mockingjays or Jabberjays on sight!", I say remembering something Persia told me when I first sang to her. Caesar looks confused. "Can you believe that. Big strong people, going out and killing sweet innocent birds that don't do anything, but sing beautiful music. It's like my relationship with the Capital, of course making me the mockingjay. Or better yet the jabberjay!"

"That makes sense!", he laughs and so does the crowd. "We'll that's all for today, say good-bye to the new Elites and to Echo Ivy the winner of the 55th Hunger Games!".

I walk back to the elevator and the rest of the Elites follow. I'm stuck in a room with a bunch of kids who hate me for the death of their friends and family. I'm so glad that I'm going back home...wait...they hate me there, too.

The next morning, I have to get prepped, just in case I dirtied myself over night. Today is the day of a big feast/party in the President's Mansion. Everyone who mattered in the 55th Hunger Games is going to be there. That means my stylist and my sponsers. Even the Elites are going to be there. They are probably getting prepped right now as well. Later that day, I'm sent on some sort of high class chariot tot the front of the Mansion. Once the door of the chariot is opened for me, there is flashes of bright lights and people of the Capital are cheering. I walk down a strip a red carpet and people taking pictures line it. I'm hurried to the inside, and there I see my stylist, Tigris, my Escort, Seran leaves to go talk to her friends. Akiliya takes Tessa to introduce the sponsers to her. Many of the Capital women ask me to dance and I oblige them from time to time, but when I realize I'm hungry, I go to find food. Not only do I find food but rows of it every where.

Tables are covered in delicious looking food and drinks. It all looks so delicious. I take a small piece of everything and by the time I'm full, I haven't even gotten halfway through the first table. I stop and go to sit down. Everything is going amazingly. I haven't had this much fun in a real long time. I never thought I could ever have this much fun. I feel tired from dancing and eating. I'm actually smiling, and then I hear the chairs to my side move. I look over and I see that it's Carmen and Morson. "Hello, Echo!", Carmenella yells over the loud music.

"Hello you two!", I say and we start to talk. I love the fact that they don't even mention Excalibar and Persia. I really don't need them in my head now. After hours of tyalking and eating, I feel a tap on my shoulder. It's Tessa and her hair is done beautifully, and she's just as stunning in her pink dress. She asks to dance, and I take her by the hand to the middle of the dancefloor. We start to dance slowly to the slow music, and people soon start to move to let the people with cameras take pictures of the Jabberjay dancing with a mockingbird.

It starts to get late and I'm escorted out of the mansion. I'm taken out to the train station and there I'm sent to my room in the train to sleep. The train starts to move again and I can't wait to see what awaits me at home. But of course, nothing but heart ache.

I just need to stand in front of my own District and give them the food they need to survive another year. The next afternoon, we arrive home and I'm instantly thrown onto the stage in front of the Justice Building, and everyone is gathered watching. Behind me they bring in huge crates of food for everyone to indulge in. I announce that families may come to get their food and that they all deserve it.

After the ceremony is over, no one, but Tessa, comes to say "Good job on the Victory Tour!", after all Clair is still missing, and if I asked any of my old friends if they knew where she went, they would just ignore me. I walk back to the house in Victor's Village, and there, again is no one. I sit on the couch in the room with the television and it still re-runs my tour, and occasionally the faces of Clair and Quinn that they are still on the loose. Later that night, it gets lonely, so I go out for a walk back to my old house. I get back to that part of District 7 and the lights are on in all the houses, filled with happy families enjoying the gift I won for them. I finally reach my house which is the only one that was cold, lifeless, and empty.

I decide to pay my older brother a visit, after all we haven't talked since the day I arrived back in District 7. I find his house, and I hear a baby crying, and laughing and cheering. I go up to the window and see my family there, plus a new addition. Arslo, and his wife, Chloe, had a baby girl. Leo is on the floor playing with her. My parents sit at the table eating watching the two play. Arslo and Chloe also watch. Leo has gotten bigger, and I hear him laugh for the first time, I wonder if has started talking. The last time I saw him was about a month ago when he was late for school. He usually leaves earlier to avoid me, well I think that's why. I work up the nerve to go up to the door to knock, and when I do I hear all noise stop, and then the noise of the locks being open and finally the door opening.

Chloe is shocked but she still manages to say hello, and to congradulate me on a Victory Tour well done. Arslo stands up and walks to the door. "What are you doing here?", he whispers to me angrily.

"I'm here to spend time with my family, which by the way left me alone at home, and to meet my niece that I never knew I had.", I say loud enough for all of them to hear.

"Well, nobody invited you, now did they!", he shouts.

"I'll let myself in then!", I shout and pass right by him. I sit down on the floor next to Leo, who gets up to sit down somewhere else, and play with my niece. "What's her name?", I ask for anyone to answer me.

"None of your business!", Arslo shouts, but Chloe stops him.

"What a pretty name?", I say sarcastically and I carry the baby. She stares at me, because she's never seen me before, and by the way Arslo talks to me, he planned on her never meeting me at all. She starts to giggle after a while, and I start notice some features that make her look like Brazilia. Her hair is dark brown, her eyes are brown, and her little cheeks look like Brazilia. I hand the baby to my mom, so she sees my face and I say, "It was nice to meet her...but I have to go now, being alone can't be done with other people, so I'll just go back home!", Arslo pushes the door wide open for me to leave. Both my parents keep their heads down to avoid my gaze. I walk out and Arslo follows me.

"I told you to never come here, ever!", he shouts.

"Sorry, but I promise to never ever see my family ever again! Tell Mom and Dad and Leo that if they want they can go back to the old house and stay there. Just come take their stuff.", I tell him, still loud enough for them to hear me.

"You're not about to kick them out of the...", he says while he puts a hand on my shoulder. I interupt his sentence by pulling out the knife I got from the Capital and holding it to his neck.

"Don't ever touch me like that!", I shout holding it closer to his throat. He stops, and I continue, "I'm not kicking them out, they want to leave.", I put the knife back and I leave him there stunned at the capabilities of the Echo he hasn't meet at all. The Echo who killed his friends, and stands alone with no one behind him. I get back to the house and go straight to sleep thinking about how alone I am now, and to think I actually felt happy. The fact that I thought that my family would accept me after a few performances in the Districts and the Capital.

When I wake up the next morning, the house is empty of all the stuff that my parents owned.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

They had left me here alone. After everything I've been through they chose to make my life harder. I go out for another walk this time I go next door to Adesa's home. I knock on the door and she opens it. The poor thing looks like she had another life threatening nightmare. She's shaking when she opens the door. She invites me in and I help her over to her couch. She sits down and I go into her kitchen to make her something to eat and drink. I come back with a whole tray filled with food and coffee. "Thank you, Echo. I could really use some companionship."

"No problem, I need some right now, too."

"Really what does a young boy like you need to talk to 54 year old like me, you are young you have friends don't you!", she says laughing.

"I had friends, but they all avoid me, and don't get me started on my family, who abandoned me.", I tell her everything and I ask her why she's alone what happened to her friends.

"Well, Echo, all my friends are either dead or just forgot who I am, besides my best friend died in the Arena when I won!", she says and she starts to recount her time there. Her best friend, Drake, and Adesa were sent into the arena. She told me that when she first saw the arena she was in awe. It was a sparkly beach and the cornucopia was in the middle of the water. She tells me that as soon as she escaped from the grasp of careers(Careers are tributes that spend their whole life training to volunteer for the Hunger Games as soon as they are old enough. They are mainly from Districts 1, 2, and 4) she went deep into a jungle. She walked for days until one day she found her friend, as soon as they saw each other, he tried to kill her. They fought until she cut his head off with a sword. She was able to eliminate the Careers by setting their whole camp on fire while they were sleeping. The rest of them all killed themselves off, until she was the final person standing. She hasn't been normal since those days.

After a while when I help her upstairs to her bed so she can get some sleep, I leave and I go back to my house. I open the door and just like a month back I find someone sitting at the table. It's Petra. I knew it was her but since I kind of don't like her, I pretend to be so surprised to fling the knife at her head. It doesn't phase her, she just grabs it from the handle when it zooms past her, I almost forgot she was just as good as any Elite. "Wow, Echo, it looks like you've been keeping up with your training!", she cheers putting the knife down.

"Hello, Petra, what are you doing here!", I ask her.

"I'm here to talk you into coming to be part of the second free-for-all training with the rest of the new Elites.", she asked me just like the man who came into my home a couple of months before. I thought about it.

"I'm not really sure, I have so much going on here.", and after I say that the room goes quite and a cricket can be heard from inside the house. "See I have to get that cricket out of here, it wakes up the neighbors every night."

"You always were such a jokester, Echo! But I'm being serious. We want you to come and show the new Elites how we did it in the good old days!"

"Good ol days? Petra that was 8 months ago.", I correct her.

"Yeah, I know, it's just that these kids are less mature than you and your group. They need a good lesson taught to them. To show them they aren't the best."

"I'm still not sure..."

"Okay, lets make a deal?", she says and she gets up.

"I'm listening."

"Let's have a fight out in your backyard. If I win, you come and become a perminant Elite trainor, and if you win you can make the decision to come or not. Sound like a deal?", she says.

I think about it for a while and I agree. We go to the backyard, and we take our corners. She starts to run at me so I run back. She punches, and I grab her hands. I throw her hands down to the floor, but she hits me in the face with her elbow. I grab her elbow and toss her to the floor. I start to pound my fists on the ground because she keeps moving out of the way. She grabs my hands, and pushes her legs against my chest, and throws me over her.

She tries to jump on top of me, but I grab her and toss her towards the wooden fence braking some of it. I tackle her down, and she grabs the scarf that she's been wearing, and wraps it around my throat. She's choking me, and I'm starting to run out of air. "You're not geting away from me. Give up now!". I start to crawl, when I see something shining in the sunlight. "What are you doing!"

I grab the handle and I pull it out of the ground. It's a gardening shovel! I use pull it back and don't hold back when it hits her in the face. She stumbles around on top of me, but I punch her in the face to get her off, also releasing the scarf from my throat. I suck in all the air and we continue. She kicks me down again when I try to get up, and pushes my head into the ground. "It looks like you've gotten weaker, Echo!", she laughs. I start to remember what Persia taught me to do in case I'm ever put in this position, but I left the knife inside the house, so I'm going to have to do it a different way.

I cup my hand, dig into the dirt, and use it to help me up. She adds her weight to me, and she's gotten heavier, even though she looks really slim. I finally throw her off, and when she starts to run towards me again, I throw the dirt in my hands into her face.

While she wipes her eyes off, I tackle her down, and I push down two of my fingers on her chest, which is taught to us to sort of signify "Give up or die".

"Okay, you win!", she says still wiping her eyes off, and I help her up. "It's your choice, Echo. You can come and become a perminant Elite trainer, or you can stay here and get that cricket out of your house." she says and I start to think. _Maybe I can tell all these new Elites about the fun times I had with their family members. Maybe I could get some of them to even like me._

"I'll do it.", I smile at her.

"You will! Oh, Echo, you won't regret it!", she squeks, "Meet me tomorrow at the Justice building around nine o'clock, where the train will wait for you to arrive. You'll be on the train with the rest of the Elites and you'll be part of the free-for-all! It's just going to be amazing!", she finishes and runs out the door. As she runs out talking to herself, I can only think of one thing. _I need to change the locks on this house._

I go for one final walk around District 7 and people don't really react to my presence for some reason. I guess they're just happy that they got their food. I walk to the school, where I first met Joel and Venice, past tributes of District 7. I walk to the fence surrounding District 7 and I pass through the gate recieving a big shock, but nothing I can't handle. I walk to the cliff edge where I would always meet with them, and after they died, where I would teach Sestra some of the stuff I knew. I sit down and look at the setting sun.

"Persia...Venice...Joel...Sestra...Excalibar...Caston...", I mutter the names of some of the people who are gone. This sunset is for them, and it happens to be the last sunset I'll ever see in Dstrict 7 for a long time.

I get up early and start to pack completely. I get dressed and find the things I need. My clothes are all packed, I tell Akiliya next door to tell my parents if she ever sees them, and my main priority is to find anything to remind me of the past Elites to share with them. I grab Persia's pin and put it on my shirt. _I should probably return this to Arslo_, I think to myself when I see the necklace. I walk to Arslo's house and knock, knowing that no one will answer to me but they do. Well, Chloe does. Arslo is off working, and she has the baby in her hands. She invites me in and we start to talk. This is actually the first time I've ever had a conversation with her. I ask her if I could hold the baby and she hands her to me. "She's really pretty, I never found out her name, what is it?", I ask.

"Johanna...Johanna Mason. She has my family name, because Arslo said that he didn't want his children to have the name of his family.", she tells me.

"Johanna...that really is a pretty name.", I say and the baby giggles. "Well, I should really leave or I'll be late for the train."

"Train? Where are you going?", she asks and I tell her. "Oh, well do you want me to tell Arslo?".

"Sure, if you think it'll make his life easier. Go ahead!", I hand her the mockingjay necklace, and tell her to give it back to him as a memory of me. I leave for the Justice building and there isn't a lot of people outside which makes me feel better about leaving. Knowing that no one will miss me makes this transition better. I walk to the train station and there is Petra holding a clipboard. She waves me over and before the train starts to move, I look back and try to forgive all the people here. I look and I see Tessa run up to the train. I see her through the bulletproof glass, and she sees me too. She's crying but she still smiles and waves.

I walk to the main room and there, sitting in sections, were the Elites. I remember doing this when I was here with Clair. I first talked to Excalibar and Persia at one of these. We didn't get along at first, but eventually we all became friends. Especially Persia. I remember in our trainings she would always try to beat me, or even knock me out in the first free-for-all. All of them stare at me, and then their chairs all move to face me at the front seat of the cart. Petra comes in and starts to talk. She saves me from talking to these kids for now, but I know this is eventually going to be hard. She directs them all to me, and she leaves. "Well I don't really have anything to say, so go talk to your friends!", I say to them.

The girl from District 5, Caitlyn's sister, Mona, raises her hand and says, "What friends all of mine are back home!", the rest of the kids look at each other and nod. Some even roll their eyes at others.

The boy from District 4, Jareda's brother, gets up and yells, "What are you looking at District 12 mutt!". The boy from District 12, Juno's brother George, gets up and pushes him, they both get in a fight, but I don't do anything. One of the girls tells me to do something, but I sit there and watch.

"Aren't you going to do anything!", Antony stops fighting with George.

"Why? I love watching a bad fight.", I tell them, and they realize I knew they were faking the whole time. They both sit down and I continue the thought I had before their fight. "You haven't made friends with each other yet! I remember by the time I was going into my second free-for-all I had made friends with at least seven of the other tributes."

"Well, Petra said we aren't allowed to make friends. She says it makes us weak.", Nicolette replies. Petra is saying a lot about the old Elites and I. What she is trying to say is that the Eites and I were weak for establishing a friendship.

"Well, forget what she said. You know what we use to call her...Pestra! She was always a bug compared to us. You know what? We are going to play a game. The girls go one district forward. For example, District 1 talk to the District 2 boy. District 12 you go to District 1.", I tell them and they all switch off. When they are done I tell all the boys to sit on one side of the room, and the girls to other side of the room to talk. By the end of the ride to the training center they were all talking like they were the closest people in the world. Pestra comes in and is surprised to the talking. She tells them to go get lunch in the training station. They all leave and I even feel a romantic spark between District 11's Jenessa and District 5's Holden.

I leave with them and lead them to the dining room. I sit alone until Morson and Carmenella sit across from me. "Well we haven't had the time to talk to each other at all now have we?", Carmenella starts off by saying.

"That's Persia's pin isn't it?", Morson says staring at the shining mockingjay in its golden perch.

"Yeah, I should give this to you. It should belong to you instead of me...here you go.", I take it off and hand it to him.

"No, you keep it. She wanted you to keep it. Besides I already have a piece of Persia with me.", he says and Carmenella looks at him as if to shut him up. I place the pin back and we start talking. I see that the girl from District 10, Lizette, is wandering around looking for somewhere to sit. She looks at one table but they shun her. I call her over and I see that she's relieved.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"Hi, I'm Lizette.", she says shyly.

"Hi Lizette, I'm Carmenella, that's Morson, and that's Echo.", Carmenella introduces us.

"Yeah, your friends all knew my brother, Urwin.", she says and as soon as she does I can make connections to Urwin. She kind of did look like her brother. She had long black hair, her eyes are amber brown(just like her brother), her eyes are kind of squinty, and she was about the same height as Urwin. She sits down and she starts to talk about all her brother, Urwin, had told her about Excalibar, Persia, and I. They were all pretty good things. We all start to laugh when she brings up the time I beat Urwin in a training. While she talked, I could feel a pair of eyes on me and when I look past her I see the girl from District 4, Caston's best friend, staring daggers at me while the people at her table talk. Her hair is half blonde on one side, and black on the other. She doesn't look like she had showered the whole time we've had a chance too. I return the stares and she smiles. I know that she is going to be a problem for me in the free-for-all. "Oh that's Rosie.", Lizette tells me when she catches me. "She is really mean, I told her that I didn't hate you, so she got the rest of the Elites to hate me.", she looks down and says.

"Rosie, huh?", I think I remember Caston mentioning her once. He told his stories of the things he and his best friend did in District 4.

"Yeah, I'm aware of Rosie.", Carmenella says. "She is really mean. I tried talking to her, but that girl is as stubborn as Caston!"

"You knew Caston?", I ask.

"No, I'm just going off of what Excalibar told me. I tried saying hello on the way here, but she spit on the ground next to me, and gave me the dirtiest look."

"That sounds like normal for her. When she had to talk to me on the train, I could smell the fish straight out of District 4.", Morson makes a face to show the disgust. Of course fish has a bad smell, but since these two are from District 2, the district that is babied by the Capital, they don't know to live with hardships or smells.

"You all talking about little ol' me!", I turn around and see that Rosie is leaning on the table. They were right you could smell the fish.

"Maybe we were, maybe we weren't?", Carmenella says.

"Or were we talking about you boyfriend...oh wait he's dead! Boohoo!", she says and she turns to leave. Carmenella looks down at the table, and I can't read her expression.

"No, we were talking about your dead best friend! You know? The one I shoved a spear into!", I yell out at her, and she stops abruptly.

"Really, last time I checked your best friend was dead, too! She was killed by mine wasn't she?", she says and she looks down at Morson.

"Yeah, but I got him back. I mean I don't know if you could hear how loud his screams were on television, but I was the one who did it, I was actually there. His shouts for help were really loud!", I tell her and smile.

She looks really mad, and her chest is pumping really quickly. She looks like she's about to hit me, but instead she turns and walks away. The way she stares at me reminds me of the way Caston would try to scare me in our trainings. She looks really mangey when I take a closer look at her. I chose to ignore her and return to the conversation at hand. When I do, I hear a loud slam against the table. I look back to see that the person in front of me has a shirt marked District 6. This must be Derma's brother. "You have a lot of nerve showing up to this, Echo!", he shouts for everyone to hear. He looks really mad, he doesn't look a thing like Derma except for their cheeks, big.

"Maybe I don't, but I'm here whether you want me or not. I am here to show you to survive in this cold hearted world. Just be glad I even decided to come! If you don't want to learn to live then don't pay attention when I'm teaching, but other than that just go back to your seat and shut up!", I yell right back at him and he has backed up a noticable space. "What's your name?" I calm down and say.

"Marcus.", he says and he leaves to the table with Rosie.

Lunch is over and we all go back to our rooms. I walk the farthest length until I get to the thirteenth hallway. I'm guessing that this was created for District Thirteen's Elite a long time before the rebellion 56 years ago. District 13 was an old District that was destroyed by the Capital to show the rest of the Districts that they didn't take kindly to rebellion. After that to remind all of the remaining Districts, they created the Hunger Games, and it kept coming every year. They still show video of the District 13 ruins on television just to remind us of there power. I walk into the last hallway before the thirteenth and then Juno's brother, George, pushes me to the wall and threatens to kill me. I'm shocked by this attempt and before he lands a hit on me, I slap him really hard, which makes him get off me. I grab him by the collar of his shirt and pull him up. When I do I know I'm about to hit him really, really hard, but I notice that he looks a a lot like Juno. A strand of hair lands over his face and then it's a perfect image of Juno. Same eyes(gray), and same olive skin. I have a flash back to the last time I saw her. She was trying to kill me by flinging knives, and she was killed by Darwin, who was killed by Issac, who was killed by me. I drop the kid and he backs off into his room and I ignore it.

I get to the door marked "Disrtict 13". It was only one room for some reason. I enter and the room looks untouched. Still looks modern, and very comfty. I lock the door behind me in order to avoid anymore confrontations. I take a shower, and I go to sleep. I dream about the second free-for-all I ever had. I first met Jareda that day, and I got really close to winning.

We apparently are going to have three days to train, just like before a Hunger Games. I'm here to teach them how to use some of the weapons before they go into the arena with me. Then on the third afternoon, I'm taking the place of a Gamemaker along side Petra, and we are going to decide which weapons to put in the mock Cornucopia.

I walk to the training gymnasium, and I find that everyone is here already. I yell out that if anyone needs help just ask me. They all acknowledge me, some nod, but most continue whatever they were doing. I walk around and examine them. A lot of them know what they are doing, and I see the girl from District 7 at the whipping station, and I want to see this.

She gets into position, and then the targets start to appear. She starts cracking the whip, but all of them are completely unsuccessful. I grab a whip, and start breaking the targets with it. "Amanda, you have to get a stronger position in order to get them. You don't throw your arm along with the whip. You need to crack and then pull back landing a stronger hit.", I tell her, "Now, you try!". She does it and her hits start to improve. I keep walking around and I watch as Jareda's brother tries to use a mace like his sister. He's successful at some swings, but it's so heavy for him that it swings him around. I take it from him and tell him, "Antony, I don't think you should use the mace. Try the scythe or a sickle. Those are lighter and almost have the same effect as a mace."

"But the mace is a family thing. Jareda learned to use one from our mom, I learned from Jareda, and I'm teaching our little brother, Finnick, to use that and a trident!", he says defiantly and trying to get me to change my mind.

"The little four year old? I don't think he'll catch on to what your teaching him for a long time. Anyways, trust me, you could use the mace, but the scythe and sickle are lighter.", I look down at the clipboard I've been carrying arround and notice that his name is different from Jareda's. "Hey, Antony, why is your last name Odair, and Jareda's Asleen?"

"Because she's my half sister. Her dad died when she was born, so then our mom got remarried to my dad, and now my little brother and I are Odair, and she kept Asleen.", he explains to me. I remember Jareda told me about her little brothers, Antony and Finnick. She always said how Finnick was the cutest one in her family, and everyone loved him. She never said much about Antony. I keep moving along and I see that Rosie is practicing with the boy from District 10. The two are fighting with swords and they are both really good. There isn't a moment where you can't hear the clash of heavy metal.

Everyone is doing amazingly, I'm happy that this next Generation will be taking our place. Even though they'll probably be thrown into the next Hunger Games. It goes like this for the next couple of days, and they've all improved indefinitely.

The last afternoon, Petra and I wait in the large gymnasium to see what they are going to do for us. We sit down behind the stand and we call in District 1's Ash, and Nicolette, Ash uses iron claws like his brother, and Nicolette uses throwing knives. Carmenella and Morson are next and I can't wait to see what they are going to do. They asked for a private session, so we gave it to them. Morson first. "Morson Walker, District 1, Archery."

"Show us what you've got!", Petra says. He grabs a bow and a quiver with a lot of arrows. He fires one, and it misses, he fires another, and it misses. He fires off a lot but they all miss. As soon as he's done, he bows and takes his leave. I get down and it's my job to clear the room of any evidence of what the previous Elite did. I get down and I look at the spots where the arrows landed. All the arrows are perfectly aligned and they spell out "Persia".

"Petra, give Morson a 12!", I yell up to her. She comes down to see it, and she doesn't disagree with me.

"Carmenella, District 2, camoflague.", and I turn around to see Carmenella entered the room. I leave all the arrows up, so everyone can see what went on in here. I get back up to the stands and while I fill her paperwork, I wonder what she was doing with the camoflague. My whole time as an Elite, I've never saw or heard of someone who used camoflague to get a score from the Elite trainers. I look up and I see Carmenella with her eyes closed and she is using the water colors to paint something on the floor in front of us. I can't really tell what it is, and when she finishes, I ask her what it is. "It's the ring Excalibar promised to get me. Every single detail. The diamond, the silver frame, and the engraved words, which say 'Now and Forever'.", she answers me and I feel my heart being pulled at. "Thank you!", she says, curtsies, and leaves with a big smile of accomplishment.

"Give her a twelve!", I say and I put my hand up to my heart. Morson and Carmenella just got my heart and twisted beyond repair. They both deserve these 12. I look closer at the diamond on the ring she painted and I see something vaguely. Some of the assitants come and they're about to cover the painting but I stop them. I get on my knees and then examine it some more. The diamond has something written on it "13". _What's that supposed to mean?_

I watch all the others but none of them were as good as Morson and Carmenella. Later that night, we announce the scores, and both of them look really accomplished.

The next morning I go to the cafeteria to eat before they send us in to the arena. I wonder what it will be, one thing that always excited me is wondering what arena we were going to be thrown into. I remember my first free-for-all, it was a shimmering beach. When I sit down to eat I see that the last of the Elites were already leaving to get ready. I barely got there and the room is empty. I eat and go get ready. I find the shirt marked with the Elite symbol, and seven. I walk to the elevator and I press the button that says "1", that's the top floor and the only floor that is above ground. There the hovercraft will be waiting to go take us to the arena. I see that everyone is strapped in and they put trackers in our arms. I found this strange, because usually the trackers are in our shirt. They close the hovercraft's door, and we set off. Everyone is quiet and I feel like they are all hiding something from me. Some of them are smiling at each other, and some look scared. We get to the catacombs below the arena, and then I get to the launch room.

I go to where I am to stand, and wait to be launched in to the pretend game. Petra enters looking at me holding her clipboard. She activates the three chances on the shirt. The shirt is kind of special. In free-for-alls, a person isn't killed they are knocked out. This shirt allows you to take three major hits, and then when they're done, it knocks you out with a shock. She activates it and tells me where to stand.

The glass tube comes around me. Before I'm sent up, three Peacekeepers walk into the room and two of them grab Petra by the arms while the third one reads her something. I can faintly hear what they are saying, but what I do understand is "Petra Prows, you are being...and sent to executi...for treason.", she starts to fight them and she is winning for a while, until one of them shoots her in the back. She gets dragged away, but not before one of the Peacekeepers deactivates the shirt. I start shouting, but I'm being sent upwards into the arena. The place is dark except for some holes in the ceiling, and I can't see anything. I start to feel around and I feel something sharp. I start moving around more and I start to here a voice come over the place I'm in. "Your leader Petra has been executed for treason. We have the target locked up in the cornucopia.", as he says this I see a door start to open and it lets in light and I can see my surroundings. Gold and there is weapons around me. _They're real weapons these shouldn't be in a free-for-all! There is something really wrong._ "The Capital has kept its end of the bargain, now it's your turn to keep up your end, friends and family of the past Elites.", I walk out the door, and I see that there is an incline upwards. I can see that all the new Elites surround me on there platforms.

Not only has there been a plot to kill me, but they also chose to do this in the worst place ever, the arena I was in when I first participated in the games. The very same arena.

I realize that the holes in the cornucopia was where I pinned Caston. I finally catch on to what just happened. I run into the cornucopia, grab a pack and any weapon I can find, which would be a scythe. The announcer speaks out, "10...9...", and I know that they are about to release them as soon as the countdown is done. I run up the incline as fast as I can. I pass by a platform where the girl of District 7 is standing, and I see that it is scorched. This is where Sestra died. I also see blood stained grass, where Juno, Issac, and Darwin died. I start to scream and I run deeper into the forest. Then I hear them announce, "Let the games begin.". I run into the forest clearing and find the same stump where I hid the first day in the arena, and I crawl back into it. I curl up and wait for all of them to pass by me. By this time, they should all be planning to spread out and find me. I start to hear noises I stop my heavy breathing. It's District 5 Elites, Issac's sister, and Derma's brother. They step really close to the hole, but they soon hear a noise on the other side of the clearing. They look around for a while and then decide to leave, and so do I. I start to run in a different direction then them.

I run into low patches of trees and I feel like I'm being followed. I get ready for a fight when George jumps down near me, but lands on the blade of my scythe. A cannon fires, and it hits me. They didn't expect any of these kids to survive either. They already had cannons rigged for them to die. I run away from George's body, and of course a hovercraft comes to take him.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

_ What is going on? Why is it going on?_ I feel angry, saddened, and really vengeful. Did Petra plan this? The announcer said that the Capital kept it's side of the bargain. They must've chosen all of them on purpose. They were the people who would've wanted more revenge on me than anyone else. Their side of the bargain is to kill me. Well that isn't going to happen. I'm going to escape this arena one more time, and maybe this time take more lives than I did last time.

I walk for hours and it soon starts to get dark. I hear two more cannons fire._ I didn't do that_. They are probably starting to turn on each other. I really hope that wasn't Carmenella or Morson. Once it's dark enough, I find my way to a waterfall just by using moonlight. The trees surrounding are high enough for me to climb, so I climb one and try to go to sleep while one more cannon fires. _These kids will stop at nothing in order to get to me_. The Capital seal appears in the sky, the anthem plays, and the faces of the deceased are shown.

_**District 1: Ash Wave**_

_**District 4: Antony Odair**_

_**District 5: Girl**_

_**District 12: George Badge**_

Richest, Jareda, and Juno's brothers. I didn't really know them but they were going to be missed by someone. I wonder what the Capital is going to tell their famlies happened. I open the pack and I find a sleeping bag. I set it up, and I try to go to sleep. I see torches from far away. I can tell that one of them is Rosie, and there are five others. I shut up and they pass below me. I could kill some of them, but it's to big of a risk. I'd rather wait for them to seperate and then kill them. I try to sleep, but the anxiety that comes from knowing that there are 20 people out there trying to kill me keeps me awake.

The next morning, the sunlight refracts off the water from the waterfall, and hits me in the face. It feels warm, and the sounds of the rushing water just makes the morning more relaxing. I realize that I've never been to this part of the arena, and this is probably where someone I wasn't keeping track of could have died. I pack up, grab the scythe, and start to climb upwards toward the current of the waterfall, up on the river bed next to the waterfall I see more low trees mixed with tall ones. Walking for hours was starting to get tiring and I finally find a spot where I can rest for a while. I sit down on some rocks by the river, and I put my hands behind me so I can lean on them, ad soak in some sun. The rock is really hot and kind of moist. I look back and see that my hand was in blood, dried blood.

I pick my hand up in a hurry and dunk it in the river to clean it of the blood. Three more cannons fire, and I look up in the sky expecting something to come flying at me, when I remember the discs that tried to kill me the first time around, but none come. Further down the path I see a trail of blood. I look down at the blood that is merging with the water and I know what this is, I'm afriad to follow it, but I do anyways. I find a wrecked camp and drag marks in the sand. This is where I killed Derma. There is still a campsite. It's still wrecked from the fight. I can faintly see the words I wrote for the message I left Caston and everyone else in the arena stll left alive. I keep moving because I don't want to remain in this place.

After walking for a long time, I'm in the meadow again. I keep walking, and I'm in a part of the meadow filled with tall grass. In the middle of the maze of tall grass from around me. It's on my left and then on my right. In front of me and behind me. It could be a muttation. Quick enough for me not to be able to see it's figure at all. I hear a loud rush from behind me, I turn quickly to see that it's Nicolette. She swings a mace, knocks the scythe from my hands, and pushes me back toward the floor. She throws the mace and jumps on top of me. She starts punching me across the face, and she yells out, "This is for my sister!" She could kill me right now. I reach for the scythe that isn't very far from me. She steps on my arm and I let out a shriek. I look over to the side and I see that the boy from District 10 is running over here, and I see that his sword is in position to kill me. He swings it, but it doesn't get me. It gets Nicolette in the neck.

I push her off and before he pulls it out of her neck, I grab the scythe and swing it getting him in the rib cage. I pull it out and he puts his arm over the wound. He falls to the floor unconcious and I run off. I don't stop until I get to a mountainous region. I know that this place is going to bring back a lot more painful memories than the last place I was at.

I go into flashback mode, and the bright white light is back. I'm back in this spot, walking with Persia. I hug her, and I start to say how sorry I am, and that we need to get out of here. She thinks I'm crazy, and I'm crying hysterically when the mountain starts to melt, and the light comes back. I'm back in the present. I walk cautiously as to not disturb the nest of Bellow Bats when I get to the gigantic cave. When I've passed the gigantic crevice I start to climb the mountain, and I can see the cave opening where Persia and I last slept. I hear a noise, so I take cover behind a tree. I hear more talking and I can tell who it is by the sound of the voices. Morson and Carmenella. "We need to find him before Rosie and the rest of her group kill him!", Carmenella tells Morson who is knelt down in front of the cave's mouth.

"Can't I just have a couple more minutes!", he shouts to her while he cries. I'm guessing he saw what I wrote over the entrance. "They didn't show this on T.V!".

"Of course they didn't. They knew that if they showed this people will have some sympathy for the boy with the glimmering hair. Sympathy is hope, hope is power, power leads to a rebellion. So they wouldn't show it, we don't know what else they've hidden from us.", Carmenella explains to him. This girl is the same age as me, yet she knows so much about the way the Capital is.

"I know, just let me take this in!", he says feeling the words I carved into the wall.

"I know it was hard to feel they were gone, but we have a job to do. Now come on. Rosie can find him any minute!", she grabs his arm and picks him up off his knees. She starts to pull him in my direction, but I climb the tree so they won't see me. _They must be even more mad at me than the others. Why else would they want to find me before Rosie and her group find me?_ They continue past the tree, and I get the urge to jump down the tree and kill them. Carmenella, who has axes, and Morson, with his arrows. Both those weapons have drag, which I can use to strike first. _No, I can't kill them. They didn't do anything wrong. If anything, I should die. After all I did kill both their lovers._ I choose not to kill them, so I crawl down and go the the opening of the cave. I see my writing over it, and I look down at Persia's pin, I have the overwhelming feeling like if she's her with me right now. I feel safer than I have in the year since her death. I crawl inside the cave and set up my nest like a home. The silver parachute is still in here, and I can see the note sent from Persia's mom and dad.

I remember being outside when Akiliya sent me the soup. I wanted to give some to Persia when I found her, red and heated up from a deadly fever. I gave her the medicine, and she felt so much better. I remember the smile she had on her face, it made me feel as if I would never ever feel an emotion of hurt or pain. She was my best friend, and no one could replace her. No one.

The night starts to come and I'm dozing off, but not before I see the faces in the sky. I wait and they finally do

_**District 1: Nicolette War**_

_**District 3: Girl**_

_**District 5: Boy**_

_**District 6: Boy**_

_**District 9: Girl**_

_**District 11: Boy**_

_**District 11: Girl**_

When that's done I nestle into the nest and go to sleep. Another dreamless(nightmareless) night. The morning I wake up I hear noises from outside and I can see that it's Rosie. She's leading the pack, and now I know that I'm cornered and I'm about to die a slow painful death. I grab my scythe and I get ready to fight. I feel a tap from behind me and I see that it's Lizette. She puts her hand over my mouth and she tells me to pack up and to get ready to run. I do as I'm told and she leads me to the farthest part of the cave. She pushes a boulder out of the way and there is a concealed cavern. She goes first and I follow. We crawl for several minutes, and we finally get to a space big enough to walk in. "That was really close, huh? Thank you, Petra, who gave us a tour of this arena before we were sent in here.", Lizette says quietly.

"Petra? She showed you that space in the cavern?", I say shocked that she would even tell them where they would be going.

"Yes, she showed us the whole arena, yard by yard. She said that we had to learn this arena for the job the Capital wanted us to do. She didn't know about it, but we did."

"Why didn't any of you warn me?", I ask angrily.

"It was to late, they wanted to record this so they can show the Districts that a rebellion is not to be pushed. They said if any of us told you, were would be turned into a target.", she says. We walk for what seems like an eternity, and I can finally hear water rushing and I can see a light. I can feel water landing on me a little bit. We get closer to the light and I can see that we are in a space filled with crystals. They're all shining blue, and they get their light source from a gigantic hole further down, it has water running down it strongly.

"Okay, when we get to the water we have to jump!", Lizette shouts over the roar of the water. I nod for her reply and she runs straight through the crashing wall of water. I doubt it for a while but I'm going to die one way or another. I run through and I'm looking down seeing a lake of water in front of me. I land and make a big splash, which sends me deep into the water. I finally resurface and see that Lizette is on the river bed. She looks at me and two cannons ring out. _These kids are dropping like flies_. "Come on, we have to find Carmenella and Morson!", she calls me over, and I realize that I'm being set up to be trapped. I play along and as soon as I'm dry enough I start to run in a different direction than Lizette, who starts to run after me when she notices. I run into the boy from District 10, and the girl from District 6, Mona. The boy holds a spear and throws it directly at me. It's about to hit me when I hear someone yell out, "No!".

It's Lizette. She just jumped in front of me, and now she has a spear through her. The boy looks ghastly and starts to run away. He just killed his District partner. Mona follows after him because she knows not to fight me hand to hand. I kneel down next to Lizette who is coughing out blood. She is able to cough out a couple more words, "Find Carmenella and Morson...", and her head falls to the side. The cannon fires, I close her eyes, I take her arrows and run off before the rest of the Elites regroup and come hunt me down.

_Alone_, the word crosses my mind, _just like when Persia died. I'm alone again, in an arena where I have no odds of winning at all._ Why did she have to follow me? _If she hadn't you would be dead now._ Well at least she is in better place with her brother. If she didn't follow me I would of died and she could have gone home to her family. Why did she want me to find Carmenella and Morson? _She must be really comitted to having them kill me._ I'm not sure that's true. Why would she die protecting me if she was just going to have me killed anyway. _Only two people can answer that._

Carmenella and Morson.

My search for those two starts right now. I know this is going to be a long trip on finding them, they can be anywhere in this arena. The mountains, the meadow, the lake, the deep forest, etc. I don't know where to start so I'll have to just walk around until I see where I should go first. One more cannon firess, and I chose not to stand still in one place.

Walking has started to become to much. I'm soon exhausted and I'm thirsty. I only have a little bit of water left in my cantein. Good thing I walked in the direction of the lake. When I arrive it is really dark, and nothing is really visible to me. Except for a small fire opposite of me across the lake. I ignore it because I know I'm to far to make noticable riples in the water. _Wait, that could be Morson and Carmenella, I have to get there attention._ I could be them, but it's a major risk. I could be alerting Rosie and her group to where I am. I fill the bottle with water and throw in a purifing tablet. I walk cautiously to the campsite, and I see two people who are asleep. Their tents say District 7. I'm guessing this is Amanda and Drake's camp. I walk into it with the scythe ready to attack just in case they are dangerous.

"Stay still, don't even move...", a girl's voice says from behind me, and I feel something get pulled around my neck.

"I'll test it out, Amanda...", a boy, Drake, says.

"Okay, Echo, take steps away from the camp..", Amanda commands me, and I do, after all she's the one with a whip around my neck. We move far enough away from it, and Drake throws a rock into the tent. I guess it was a trap, because the tent explodes and sends knives flying into the air.

Later on that night, the anthem plays and the Capital seal appears in the sky.

_**District 3: Boy**_

_**District 6: Girl**_

_**District 10: Lizette Carnivous**_

_**District 12: Girl**_

"Only Rosie would kill her own team mates...", Amanda whispers to Drake. He agrees and right now I feel like I'm left in the dark.

"Why did you guys save me?", I finally ask.

"Carmenella and Morson told us too.", Drake answers. _There it is again. Why do they want to save me?_

"You wouldn't happen to know why they want me to live?", I ask.

"No, not at all.", Amanda answers. These kids look a little bit younger than me, so that means they go to school with the rest of the people I know. I have one more question for them but I don't know if I should ask.

"Why does everyone in District 7 hate me?", it slips out of my mouth. Drake looks at me like if I should know.

"What do you mean, 'Why?'. It's kind of obvious.", I can hear anger in his voice. "You say that you're saddened by the death of your friends in the arena, yet you were the number one danger in that arena! You were so sad that you were able to put on a smile for the camera in the Capital, am I right?", he starts raising his voice, and then Amanda cuts in.

"You didn't see the other tributes in the arena like we did! They were scared for their lives, while you went around and ended them!", now she's mad. "I remember watching Caston and Jareda being together for the last time! She was crying and he was comforting her. She felt so horrible about having to kill you, but she went through with the plan because you were killing people left and right.", she says and I drop my gaze from the both of them.

"You know what the worst part is!", Drake says, "After when you had won, all you talked about was how you will miss your Elite friends. Not once did you mention Sestra, not until Caesar asked you!". It's true, I hadn't really thought about Sestra up until recently. It was always about Persia and Excalibar and Caston and Jareda, and everyone else. "It's good to get that off my chest! You didn't deserve to live at all! You're nothing but a Capital Mutt! I should kill you right now, but Carmenella and Morson want you for something, so we're leading you unharmed!", he says ending this conversation. He climbs up the tree and goes to sleep. I can still here him grumbling words with more anger.

Amanda comes up to me and hands me a paper, "Morson told me to give this to you...", she whispers. I open it and all it says is "13". She leaps up into the tree and goes to sleep along side Drake. I do the same, and I slowly fall asleep. I realize that I am a horrible person, I abandoned Sestra completely, I do deserve to die.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

I wake up early the next morning, and I hear rustling in the tree that Amanda and Drake climbed into. I stay still and I hear someone yell out something. "I caught these two in the tree, Rosie! What do we do with them?", the boy asks Rosie. That's who it is when I peek out through the branches.

"Hold them down!", she tells her group while they throw a beaten Amanda and Drake onto the floor. _I'm losing more allies_. "You're both from the same District as the target, which means you should know where he is! Well, where is he?". Amanda spits on her, and they both stay quite. "Okay, I tried to be nice, but you've forced me to use the big guns! Do it now!", she commands the boy from District 8. He puts a sword to Drake's chest, and his last words are, "Amanda...I love you!", and he gets his throat slit. His cannon fires. The cannon silences everything in the early morning's light. Everything remains quite. I'm instantly taken back to the day when I saw Issac holding a dying Juno. Her last words to him were, "I love you, Issac."

"Drake!", Amanda screams out, and I'm brought back to the present.

"Now, will you tell me!", Rosie screams out.

"No!".

"Fine! Take care of her Erica!", the girl, Erica, from District 8 skewers her with a spear, and Amanda falls foward onto the spear that was just thrusted into her. I squeck a little but they don't hear me. "Come on! Let's get out of here!", Rosie rushes her team off and Amanda is left on the floor to die.

I get down from the tree, and go to Amanda's side. She's still alive. "Echo, find Carmenella and Morson! Follow the clue..", she says.

"I will.", I whisper. This is exactly what happened to Persia.

"Can you put me near Drake?", she asks and I carry her body over to his. I put her hand in his and she closes her eyes. Her cannon fires and I take their pack to get the food they no longer need. The hovercraft zooms into view and takes them both together. I leave and I keep wondering what clue Amanda was talking about. I walk looking at the paper in my hand saying "13", but I don't understand it. I hear something behind me, I turn around and I see Erica, the girl from district 8, and she is about to call for her team, but I fling the scythe and it gets her in the back. She trys yelling but their is so much blood in her mouth that she can't.

Her cannon fires and I start to run off. I keep up my speed until I turn to look back and crash into a tree. I land at the base of the tree and above me in the hazey dawn's light I can see the number 13 and an arrow pointing left carved into it. I follow the arrow thinking that this is the clue I'm looking for. I walk hours before I find another tree that has an arrow and 13 on it. I climb that very tree and eat at the highest branch. I wonder where this is leading me exactly? Once I'm full I get down and continue going the direction the clue points me in.

I keep going and I end up at part of the arena I had never seen before. The trees are mixed, some I know, and others are foreign to me. I keep walking around and I see a broken, empty beehive. It's a Tracker Jacker nest! I walk cautiously, because I don't know if the mutts are around.

I get around the nest, and it's completely empty. It's filled with honey, but only a crazy person would eat Tracker Jacker honey. It is said that it will burn you from the inside out, and to carry a flesh eating disease that will kill you in one hour at least.

I keep walking, and I hear the tiny wings flapping, or buzzing. Tracker Jackers! I peek over a bush and see the boy from District 10 on the floor with the large bees buzzing around him. I don't know what he did to make them angry, but whatever he did really pissed them off for them to chase him this far. But I'm really impressed, the boy that I hit with a scythe in the rib cage was able to run this far away from the bees even with the deep injury.

After walking forever, it starts to get dark and I see that the Capital seal appears in the sky and the anthem plays.

_**District 7: Drake Ramsey**_

_**District 7: Amanda Heiress**_

_**District 8: Erica Haynes**_

_**District 10: Boy**_

That's all for today, and I decide to get some rest under the cover of a pile of leaves tonight. The next morning once I'm packed I see that a tree next to me had a thirteen and it says "just a bit more to the left". I no longer have my scythe, I left it in Erica's dead body, but I still have Lizette's bow and arrows. I continue on and I'm still tired and I start to feel a bit more groggy than I usually do. My leg starts to feel a lot heavier, and when I look down I see that my leg is three times bigger than normal. I fall on all fours, I examine my leg a bit more, and I see a couple of dead Tracker Jackers with their stingers in my leg. I start to panic and I see things starting to get distorted. Tracker Jackers are deadly wasp like Capital Mutations. Their venom is highly lethal. It causes hallucinations, extreme pains, and if you are stung by a lot, death. Everything is getting stretched and it's becoming shinier. I see something coming towards me. I'm not sure what it is, it could be a Mutation, or worse, Rosie and her group. I try to fire an arrow but the arrow turns into a snake in my hands. I crawl away from it backwards and finally everything in view starts to turn dark.

I wake up and I'm in the cave with Persia, and Excalibar? This is weird. "What's going on?", I ask.

"Echo! You're awake!", Excalibar cheers.

"Excalibar? Persia?"

"Yes, it's us! We're here for you!", Sestra comes into view and answers. I'm surprised, and I crawl over to her. I pull her close and I start to hug her until she begs for air.

"Sestra, Persia, Excalibar, I've missed you all! But aren't you all dead?"

"We are, and we're here to bring you with us!", Persia says, and her voice turns into a horrific screech. All of them start to slowly turn into wolf-like mutations, and they get closer, and I scream. It repeats five more time before everything shatters and I'm somewhere else.

I'm back home. I sit up in the bed and I hear a baby crying. I get up from the bed, and open the door. I hear the baby's cry getting louder. I walk down the stairs and there I see Arslo and Chloe sitting down at the table holding Johanna. "It's about time you wake up, I've been so worried!", Arslo runs up to me and hugs me. _Arslo never hugs me_."What happened? I came here to give you the necklace back, and I found you unconcious on the floor!".

"I don't know...", I hesitate.

"He finally woke up! Mom, Dad he finally woke up!", Leo comes out of the living room and yells out. My parents swarm me, and I know this isn't my family.

"Who are you people!", I yell out and Arslo tries to calm me down. I push him off and when he hits the floor he turns into a millions of Tracker Jackers. The same happens to the everyone else. I'm swatting at them, I close my eyes, and when I open them I'm running from Jareda and Caston in the first arena. I see the nest of the Candy pink birds, and I shoot the crossbow's arrow into the top branch holding it.. The nest tumbles down, only this time they don't attack them. I see Excalibar, Persia, and Crimson being attacked by the birds. I'm back in the camp with them and they are being swarmed by the birds. They're shouting out for help, and I see a group of the birds puncture Persia's body repeatedly until she falls dead to the floor. Excalibar tries to escape but when he does he's attacked by golden squirrels that turn out to be carnivorous beasts. I try to help but I'm held in place by dirt that is up to my knees and it's consuming me. Crimson stumbles into the pack of Noise Crackers and is eaten alive. I watch them all die in front of me and then the sand is up to my chest and I can no longer move my arms. I sink in until everything turns dark again.

I wake up breathing in heavily, pulling in all amounts of air that I can. I see that I'm in small cave-like place. I crawl out the hole and I'm prepared to fight off any muttation my dreams have in store for me. None come.

I relax for a bit and something jumps down from the tree. I see that it's a boy. The one from District 9 to be more specific. "What's going on?", I say quietly.

"Shh...stay still, while I remove the roots.", he says, and he starts to peel something off my leg. I look down and it's wet leaves. The swelling of the stings have gone down, and now he's unwrapping roots from my leg. _Another one of Carmenella and Morson's allies?_

"Thank you...what's your name, kid?", I ask the boy. He's about 13 years old, but he looks younger than that.

"Salem Hazer...", he says crushing grains in a little pot. He must've gotten this from the cornucopia. He's put the pot in a concealed spot in the sunlight. It must be solar. I ask him what he's cooking and he says it's some natural root soup made with some roots I can't name and lake water.

"So are you working with Carmenella and Morson?", I ask when we start to eat.

"Yes, I am, they left me here so in case you found you're way her with Lizette, Amanda, and Drake I would lead you all back to the cornucopia. Did Rosie get to them?", he asks looking me in the eyes.

"Yes...all three of them."

"Oh...but they knew what they were getting into when we all took our pact in the dining room the morning of the launching."

"You wouldn't happen to know why they want to save me?", I say hoping he would know.

"No, they told me that they have something special planned for all of us. Now get ready. Tonight we start to go back to the cornucopia. That's where they'll be.", we finish off the rest of the pot filled with soup, and we lay down to get some sleep. I manage to get a sleep without having a nightmare.

I wake up later on and I see that Salem is cooking something again. He has my arrows and a dead rabbit with him. "What did I miss?", I ask.

"I got us both lunch using your weapons.", he laughs as he stirs the pot. "You've been asleep for a long time. It's already...", he looks toward the sunlight, and he thinks for a while, "12:30!"

"You can tell the time?", I ask impressed.

"Yeah, most of us back in District 9 that work in the fields learn how to tell time from the sunlight, because it helps know when it's quitting time."

"That's really cool! In District 7, we have a bird in a cage that squaks loudly to reach the whole forest. It's really annying!", we both laugh.

"Eat it up. Tonight we're going to use the dusk to give us cover, and luckily I have an extra pair of night vision sunglasses!", we continue eating the rabbit while sharing stuff about our District. I already know a lot from Clydessa, one of the past Elites, and I think he's related to her. I don't know how but maybe he's related to Alex. Clydessa told me a lot about District 9, but only in exchange for information about District 7. She was a real weirdo, but she was always so giddy and always in a good mood, I was glad to know her, she made me feel like I should always be in a good mood. Even though she tried to kill me, and got killed by Caitlynn instead, she was still one of the coolest people I'd ever met.

We do talk about his home, but he seems a lot more intrested in District 7. I give him the information and he looks satisfied. He also says that he would want to visit my home, because he's never smelled a pine tree before. They exclusively grow outside of District 9, and being caught with the scent on you would probably lead to a punishment, but in District 7, they grow like wildflowers.

It soon becomes dark and there is no cannons for the rest of the day. They must've stopped killing each other already. We both pack up and we start to walk in the shadow of the dusk. I feel a lot more comfortable running in the shadows. I know no one could really see me. Back when I was still an Elite, I use to reenact the trainings by sneaking outside District 7 at night. It made me feel free as a bird. Running, climbing, practicing the whip, etc. Just training all the time, it was so relaxing, but now I'm running, jumping from branch to branch in the canopy high up from the forest floor in order to survive.

We finally stop, and find a mouth in the base of a tree. I'm to tired to question it, so I make my way inside, and so does Salim.

The next morning I wake up and crawl out the crevice in the tree's trunk. I look back and realize what this place is. The same place I started the games in. That means the cornucopia shouldn't be to far from here! I wake up Salem and he gets packed. I hand him some of the food I had in my pack and we eat on our walk to the cornucopia.

We come to a log, and I have a flashback to the last day in the arena. This is where Excalibar was being chased by the Tracker Jackers. He was jumping off this trunk we are walking over right now. I still have a picture perfect memory of seeing him jumping and running around. Salem wakes me up from my daze and we continue on. He says he feels faint, so we sit down near a tree that points out the direction we were supposed to be going. He pulls out something from his pack and starts to eat it. It looks really familiar, and I ask him what it is. He tells me it's a katniss root. He says it makes him feel better when he's tired. I drink some water I hear rustling in the trees but Salem assures me that it's just the left over Tracker Jacker venom still left in my body.

The walk is long and more strainous than I remember. Then again I was running for my life the first time. Time flies when your life is in danger. I can see that the trees are becoming more dense so we must be getting close. After a while, I start to re-suspect Carmenella and Morson, and everyone they've had as a team member, of trying to kill me, but one look at the thirteen year old and I think, _No they aren't killers, Drake was right...you yourself are the killer, and to that side of you, these people are prey. _


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

I push the thought of these people being killers to the back of my mind and I continue on with Salem.

I tell him more about District 7, and there isn't a moment where he isn't intrested. I don't know what it is about this kid, but even if they are trying to kill me, I won't let him die a horrible death. We keep walking, and somehow I become the lead of the group of two. He might know the full arena, but I lived in it before. Once we see one more thirteen carved into a tree, we follow the direction it points us in and it leads us to a slight upward incline. I know this place.

At the top of this incline there should be the platforms and then I know we made it into the cornucopia. We start to climb and this hill isn't very high so we don't spend much time climbing it. Once we reach the top I can see the golden cornucopia in the middle of the hill side. I stand for a moment and scan the area for Morson and Carmenella, I don't see them. I realize that Salem has gone quite, and the the thought of them trying to kill me has come back.

I pull the bow and arrow out, and get ready for their attack. I hear something running up from behind me. Without skipping a beat, I pull an arrow out of the quiver, and shoot it. I turn quickly and let it fly into the head of the boy from District 8, and he lies on the floor injured. He falls straight on to the floor with an arrow in his head. He jumped out of a tree to attack, of course he was going to be an easy target for me.

I try and get Salem to help, but when he tries, he drops to the floor. Behind him I see Rosie jumps me with a bloody iron claw. "Finally, we've found you!", she says with a smile on her face. "I've been worried sick about you!".

I charge at her and we start to fight. For the one who has gigantic blades to attack me with, she sucks at fighting. I kick in the face which sends her flying back, and she tries to get me with the claws, but she keeps missing. She's obviously nothing like her best friend. I keep kicking her, pushing her away from me, and she seems to be getting tired. She charges but I grab the back of her head, and push her towards the floor. Now she's mad. She keeps swinging the claws but always misses. This whole time I thought she was some sort of natural killer, but that was only when she had a team to help her out, now that she was alone, she is completely useless with weapons.

"This is really fun!", I mock her. She roars, and starts swiping at my feet, she lands a big hit on the side of my leg, and I fall to the ground. She gets another hit into my side, and I'm on the floor. _Now I'm going to die!_ She comes up to me, and puts the claws to my neck. A cannon fires. "Oh, looks like your friend is dead. What a shame we had to find you first, I wanted to save everyone else for last.", she says and I can smell her breath which is horrible. I don't respond to her in anyway. "Why so quiet...answer me!", she picks me up by the collar of my shirt, "Respond!"

I spit on her and I tell her, "How's that for a response!", and she tosses me down.

"Stay here and you won't die such a painful death!", she goes back to the bush where they ran out of, and she comes back holding a spear. "Do you know what this is, Echo?", she shows me and I know what it is.

"It's the lightning rod I used to kill Caston!", I yell at her.

"Exactly. You killed my best friend with this and now I'm going to kill you with it! It's nothing but poetic justice.", she laughs and gets in a position to drive it through me. I hear more rustling, something flies through the air, and Rosie gets pushed far away from me, and a massive kick by two people over me. It's Morson and Carmenella! "What the...", she yells knocked on to the floor no longer prepared to throw the lightning rod. She gets sent skidding across the floor with a kick to the face. It's Morson! He's fighting with her on the ground and I don't know who to help first.I see that the boy from District 8 is no longer on the floor, he has Carmenella topped and she is being strangled. I run into his body and knock him off of her. I jump on top of him and start beating him, punching left and right, his face is already covered in blood from the arrow to the head Carmenella rises to her feet and tries to help me, but she is so disoriented from the lack of air that she falls back down to the floor. He starts to reach for a spear, but I grab it before him.

"Is this what you wanted!", I hold it over him. "Well, you can have it!", I shout out and drive it through his chest. The cannon fires and I see that Carmenella is up, but she's still struggling. "Go help, Morson!"

"Carmenella call them...NOW!", Morson yells out. She pulls something out of her pack, but I can't see what it is. I run over and help Morson. Before I get there, he get's pushed off and Rosie is about to stab him with the claws. I jump over him and get stabbed instead. I see her stand over me, and she's about to cut me again, but halfway there she stops. There it is. The lightning rod is through her. Morson gets up from where he lays. I see that Carmenella is the one who stabbed it through her. Rosie falls to her knees, and she has a look of horror in her face.

"You bastards..." she says, falls on top of me, and I push her off.

"I told you, you should've been nicer!", Carmenella spits on her. "Plus, you already smell like you've been dead for six months."

I see a bright white light over me, and I think I'm having another flash back, but it's a hovercraft. It picks up Salem's body, and a stair case is sent down. Morson Climbs up first, then Carmenella and she tells me to follow. We are frozen halfway up, and a shock is sent through us. The trackers in our arms have stopped working. I can feel a breeze flying through me.

They retract the stairs back into the hovercraft. Once we're pulled in a bunch of people dressed like doctors come to our aid. I look down once they start to pull me away, and see that the wounds from the iron claw's attack, have left me bleeding, a lot. They take me to a room, and I realize that these are probably Capital people. After all, I am in a hovercraft. They must be trying to finish me off. I start to flail while they try to force me onto the the hospital like bed. "Get off of me!", I kick and yell. I'm weak, after all that fighting, they've got me at my weakest, they can kill me really quickly. They finally get me on the bed, and some off them start to strap me in. I see Morson and Carmenella, at the edge of the door, and I'm pretty sure they see me looking at them. "What's going on!", I yell out for them to hear me, but I feel something prick me on the side of the leg, and everything starts to fade. I try yelling out more words, but they just turn into incoherant babble. Eventually everything turns black, and I'm out.

I open my eyes, and I'm back home. _Another dream._ I get up and the house is empty. I get out of the house and everything is empty. I hear explosions breaking out in the sky, and I look up to see hovercrafts shooting at one another. I hear gunfire coming fromm ooutside of Victor's Village, and I run out through the gate. I see people in protective clothing, firing at others across from them. There are some fighting, and I see that some of the hovercrafts have the number 7 painted on them. They are firing, but none of their bullets get me. I haven't even been acknowledged yet. I'm completely invisible to them, so I was right this was a dream. But what type of dream. There are explosions all over, and I see some people being carried into buildings. I follow them in and it's filled with people who are half dead, and injured in every way imaginable. I hear a scream of pain that sounds completely familiar. Arslo!

I find the screams coming from a man who looks like Arslo, because it is. I see the mockingjay necklace around his neck. I sit down next to him, while some people wrap bandages around his leg. He has bullet wounds all over him, and they are throwing what smells to be alcohol onto the wounds. What was going on?

I look over to my side and see that there is another boy older than me. I look at his eyes, and I know this person too. Leo! He's on the stretcher, and he's loooking over at Arslo as he screams. "It'll be okay, Leo, I'll be fine!", Arslo reassures him. Leo just lies there, unspoken. Still.

After all the medics leave them both alone, Arslo and Leo just ly there. "Leo?", Arslo says and Leo nods. "You know what I regret?", leo nods responding with a no. "I regret not saying goodbye to Echo. You know before he left. I miss him so much, I miss seeing reckless, free spirited, and skilled Echo. How he would always sing back to the mockingjays if they ever perched in the branches near the house.", Leo nods more. "Why did we treat Echo so badly? He didn't deserve it. He was feeling bad enough, and now that he's dead, I regret everything." He says and I can see a tear forming in his eye, Leo's already crying. I hear a loud rumble, and I look up to see the roof crumbling. I can hear even louder explosions, the roof falls all over, and I grab both of their hands even though I go straight through them. I'm still invisible, and intangible. I close my eyes tight and I no longer hear the explosions.

My eyes start to open more, and I can see that I'm in a room, and I'm on a bed. I'm hooked up to a machine. It starts to beep and I can her a door open slide open. I must be in the Capital. _I'm not dead they plan on torturing me!_ I get ready to see who walks through the door and I see that it's Tessa and she's crying. "Echo, you're alive."

"What's wrong, Tessa? Where are we?"

"It's my mother, Akiliya, she's...dead!", she starts crying more, and she's hugging me. Akiliya's dead?

"What happened?", I ask her and she tells me. After I was taken from the Arena, they went after anyone who would've known who would've taken me. They killed Petra, Akiliya, Seran, Adesa, and Psy Prows, even though he was just an Avox. She says that she was able to escape, because Akiliya warned her and sent her off into the forest surrounding District 7.

I hold her close to me the whole time, and I kiss her. I tell her everything is going to be okay, but I'm not even sure if that's true. She eventually calms down and she leaves me alone to my thoughts. Akiliya, dead. Seran, dead. Adesa, dead. Why would they go after them. Akiliya was completely innocent, so was Seran. Seran was stupidly innocent. She would have no idea where I would've gone. She loses contact with me after the Victory Tour. Adesa. That's the lowest they could go. She was completely innocent in every sense of the word. She was upset over her whole life already, and they had to take her and kill her. After being left alone for so long I hear the door open. Someone comes in and I see that it's someone realy familiar. Persia!


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"Persia...". I can feel tears in my eyes.

"Yes, Echo, it's me!", she comes in and hugs me.

"Persia, I thought you were dead!", I'm crying now, holding on to her not planning to let go anytime soon. At first I suspect it's just a dream, but this feels to real to be a dream. Even if it is I'm enjoying it to much, so I don't care.

"I was, but they saved me! Just like they did for you!", she says crying.

"Who?"

"The people of District 13!", she says and we are both crying and laughing. I can't believe it, Persia is actually here, alive. _District 13, but they were destroyed in an explosion. They can't be alive._ That's weird, this has to be a dream. There is no way this is District 13. I can hear the door slide open again. I look over and it's...it's...Excalibar!

"Jabberjay! You are alive!", he shouts out, and runs up to hug us both. After the happy embrace, they explain to me about District 13. Apparently, District 13 struck a deal with the Capital to be left alone or they would nuke it. The Capital obliged and cut off every connections to District 13 just like they wanted. They told ever other District that District 13 was obliterated, but that wasn't close to true. Ever since then they've been living underground, all abiding to a set of rules. "Camenella, Morson, Persia, and I have been working for District 13. They saved me in the arena after the first hovercraft took you!"

"And they took me right in front of you.", Persia follows.

"No wonder that hovercraft seemed odd.", I tell them. "Why did they save me?", I ask.

"Because you know a bit more, about the Capital, and your an Elite. Plus we didn't want you to die the way they planned it for you.", Excalibar tells me. I look down at my leg and see that there is a wound, and on my stomach to. They might have kept me alive, but they couldn't fully heal me like the Capital did the first time I was there.

Carmenella and Morson both walk in. They both go to their lovers. I notice Carmenella has a ring on her finger. It isn't anything fancy, it's just a ring of possibly a random metal, and it has a heart shaped pebble in the middle of it. Morson and Persia are both kiss and it makes me think of Tessa. "We've got a surprise for you, 'Jabberjay'! Just wait for it." Morson says. He leaves and the door opens up and walks in Amanda, Drake, Lizette, Antony, Marcus, and Salem. They all come up to me, and I'm still streaming tears from all this joy, but Carmenella tells me there is still more. The door opens again and it's Urwin, Nessa, Richest, Issac, Jareda, Derma, Clydessa, Artimis, and Jason. They're hugging me, and it's starting to become to much for me. I'm an emotional wreck, but it's completely out of happiness.

"Jabberjay, we're so glad you're okay!", Jareda hugs me.

"Yeah, we doubted they would've gotten you in time, Echo!", Richest says standing close.

"No, I'm fine, and just seeing you guys makes me feel a whole lot better. Is everyone else still coming?", I ask them. Everyone finds the floor in order to avoid my gaze, and Excalibar tells me what happened. They were only able to revive people who weren't damaged to badly, so not everyone made it. It saddens me, not to see Kessie, Caston, Cashmere, Juno, and all the rest, but I still keep on a broght face, and spend a long time catching up with everyone. They all soon start to leave, because they have training on their schedueles. Jareda grabs hold of Antony's hand and they leave. Urwin does the same with Lizette, and the rest of the kids leave, as do the Elites, and I'm left alone with Carmenella.

"I bet you're really happy to see all your friends again!", she walks up to me and says.

"Yes, I am."

"Did they tell you about what the Capital wanted to do to you?", she tells sitting down in a chair next to the bed.

"No, but I would like to know..."

"The Capital sent all the Elites into an arena to play the Hunger Games. They wanted to iraticate all of you. They were going to kill the winner just like they were going to do to you. They wanted to destroy anything left about the Elites, it was decided that all of you knew to much, and that it wasn't guarenteed that all of you were going to side with the Captial in case of another rebellion.", she tells me and it starts to come together. Psy Prows being turned into an Avox, Petra being killed. "They expected you to kill most of the new Elites in the arena, so they wouldn't have to kill as much if they just let them kill you right off the bat."

"So, what does District 13 have to do with any of this?"

"They wanted the Elites to stay here, and train extensively, so in case the rebellion does start again, we will have most of you to fight on our side, and while you are here you will pretty much do the same thing you guys did as District Elites. In case the Capital plans on attacking us, everyone else and you shall be fighting on our side.", she reaches over to the machine and checks something. "You should be able to walk now, here put these on.", she says and hands me a uniform. I look at her and realize that everyone I've met has been wearing it. She leaves the room and I start to change. I look through my old clothes and find the mockingjay pin. I pin it on to my uniform, so I can have some identification among these people. I walk out and Morson escorts me to an elevator. Once we are in he presses a button and the elevator goes backwards and then down.

We come out into a room where there is a television, and many people who look like important. Morson tells me that they are exactly that, politicians of District 13, they try and make this place better. I sit down in front of them because that's what they wanted me to do. "Hello Echo, I'm President Coin of District 13. You're probably wondering why you're here?"

"Yes, and I would like to know.", I tell the woman.

"We'll we are her to discuss this with the nice representitive from the Capital.", she directs her vision to a colorfully well-dressed man. He does look straight out of the Capital.

"Yes, young man, you alone have caused a lot of trouble to the Capital and all it represents."

"I didn't mean to..."

"Well, the Capital is willing to offer District 13 lots of money, and a lot more constructing material, so you can expand, in exchange for the boy.", the stubby man says to President Coin.

"No deal. We said that we didn't want to be disturbed by any of the Districts, or the Capital. We are going to keep this boy here with us.", she responds to this deal. The bargining continues for half an hour. One of the deals is to go back home, and to remain undisturbed by anyone, and still become a mentor, but they disagree. They finally come to an agreement, "He will stay here with us, and he shall never be seen by any of the Districts ever again. You shall deliver the news of his death back to District 7."

"Agreed,", he says and walks by me. He mutters something once he sees my pin, "Mockingjays...disgusting little creatures."

President Coin stands up and clearifies the deal to me. I shall be given special quarters along with the rest of the remaining Elites. I'm sent to the room and I see that in the drawers is just the same uniform. I sit down, and Morson explains all the rules of District 13. I couldn't care less, I just wanted to see my friends again. "So what happened to Clair and Quinn?", I ask him.

He sits down next to me on the bed. He starts, "The two of them were taken from their home Districts and they were treated as traitors. They were turned into Avoxes along with Psy Prows. They were also executed.", he turns back to the clipboard in his hand, "It looks like you'll be sharing your room with Jareda." I'm in a room with Jareda? How fun. I killed her boyfriend, and he couldn't be revived for the way I killed him. He leaves me alone, and after staring at a wall for fifteen minutes of silence, Tessa comes in.

I'm so happy to see that she didn't meet the same fate as her mother, one of my only friends, Akiliya. I walk up to her and give her the biggest kiss I've ever given any girl. She returned it, and I just didn't stop myself. She grabs my hand and we walk out of the room together. She guides me to a room where all the other Elites are. They're all talking, and once they see me again they cheer at the success of me being able to stay. After a while I hear music start to play, and someone starts to sing.

I look over and it's Jareda singing the first verse of the song I sang to Persia. Soon they all start to join in, and everyone is singing. When the song is done they all give me the biggest hug ever.

After a long while all of them are schedueled for downtime in their rooms, so I follow Jareda since we have the same room. We go back to the room we were assigned and when we sit down, I turn to her and say, "Jareda, we need to talk."


End file.
